Hi: Thanks for your response.
I think the reason I chose to respond to your essay is two-fold:
- I noticed your describing yourself as a "Product Thinker" on your Medium headline. I feel like that carries some responsiblity to be _thoughtful_ which is why I raised the two issues of accuracy-- (0-10) and the wording of the question. I think it's worth the time and energy to correct factual stuff and Medium essays are easy to edit.
- Your Twitter headline gave a "Hell, na" to using NPS and I think the issue isn't whether it is good/bad but whether it's useful. I felt like the essay said folks should not use it and I have struggled to find a more useful tool -- your response came back around to the question of usefulness, which I appreciate. I think that's the key issue -- not whether it is good/bad., which is how your essay felt to me.
I appreciate your perspective.
So, how's this essay? What feedback systems do you have for it? What's good about the essay? What would make it better? You have ten claps, one response that affirms your view and another that is nicely challenging it. These are the questions I ask when I write an essay on Medium and why I chose to include an NPS survey link at the end of every essay.
I get a lot more feedback with lots of clues about how write a better essay next time. That's why I find Net Promoter Score useful. I will send you the survey result link in a direct message via Twitter or whatever means I can discover that isn't quite so public.
As for your specific responses:
- NPS is a qualitative tool. I don't look for any measure of statistical power.
- It puts the pressure on the customer...I find this an interesting thought but not sure of its bearing on how to get feedack.
- It is not objective, can be gamed, and is widely used incorrectly. Again, it's a qualitative source so I'm not focused on its objectivity and I find it a useful tool to help build better products. Anyone who games it or misuses it is doing themselves a disservice given the goal is to develop consumer insight. Ironically, misuse is the reason I'm hoping you'll edit your essay on the two inaccuracies I raised.
Some stuff about NPS you'll likely find interesting, given I do a lot of them for my essays, talks, workshops and exec events:
- You are correct. That by having a number (an NPS of 70, it's easy to fall into a trap of thinking the feedback has more weight than it does -- it's just a number.
- In Australia, I expect a 10-15 point lower NPS than other regions. Their education system operates on a 0-80 scale so it's somehow unnatural to give a 9 or 10. In Brazil, folks are wonderfully generous with their scores -- lots of 9's and 10's. Americans are closer to Australians and Germans (and most of Europe) are closer to Australians.
I recall reading a similar essay on NPS from Jared Spool and notice quite a few anti-NPS essays from quite a few designers, which is interesting. I am curious to learn what special hell NPS has dragged designers through.
If we ever have a conversation IRL remind me to tell you the story of a designer who worked for me who did a bunch of research on the 40 Shades of Blue Google issue-- some surprising results-- a fun story.
Keep hitting the publish button and gather any type of data you can!
