Even the feedback you ask for is meaningless..

… if you don’t allow it to challenge your assumptions

Earlier this year, I evaluated a site and in my feedback pointed out that the biggest threat was that their claimed benefits were in fact, ‘non-benefits’. Like many, many businesses, they had decided that what they wanted the benefits to be = what the benefits actually were for their customers

And like so many businesses, I was pretty sure that they weren’t listening when I gave them my report (both in writing and verbally). Why? Because my feedback challenged their fundamental assumptions about what the experience of their site was like for their customers.

Today I received an email announcing that the site is shutting down. I’m sorry to see it, but it’s no surprise.

It serves to remind me once again that inflexible assumptions about the benefits our products and services is the quickest way out of business.