I read an interesting review of Terapad last night from Andy. It was a constructively critical [tag]review[/tag] with many [tag]compliments[/tag] and [tag]complaints[/tag] about the various features of this new blogging platform.
Stephan of [tag]Terapad[/tag] was very quick to reply to Andy’s review, albeit in a somewhat defensive manner. From a neutral perspective I can tell that both of the guys have very valid points and it’s a pity that the discussion seemed to produce a negative outcome when it had so much potential.
Using valuable [tag]customer criticism[/tag]
Yes, criticism is valuable. Companies spend megabucks on user testing so when you have someone offering up golden information for free, thank them - no matter how negatively it’s worded. Stephan is understandably defending the product which he has put heart and soul into. But he doesn’t need to be defensive about it.
Stephan, I think you should step back and view this constructive [tag]criticism[/tag] for what it is - valuable [tag]customer feedback[/tag].You’ll be getting user feedback from non-technical users and now you’ve had a techie guy hand you on a plate a prioritised list of things that you can change for v2.0. This kind of [tag]feedback[/tag] is golden.
As someone interested enough to create a whole new blog platformyou should view this as an opportunity to [tag]communicate[/tag] with your users and get more people on board.
My recommendation to you, Stephan, is that you take Andy’s list, fix what you can right now. Then take the list, and put it on your blog as “user feedback” drawing lots of attention to it and list Andy’s constructive criticisms and note after each if it’s fixed, or if it’s not then what you’re doing about it.
That’s how to use feedback like this - embrace it, don’t defend against it!
