How can you incorporate stakeholder feedback into your improvement cycles?

Stakeholder feedback is a valuable source of information and insight for any business project or process. It can help you identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as measure your performance and impact. However, collecting and analyzing feedback is not enough. You also need to incorporate it into your improvement cycles, which are the systematic steps you take to plan, execute, review, and refine your work. In this article, you will learn how to do that effectively and efficiently.

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you solicit any feedback, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. This will help you align your feedback questions and methods with your objectives and indicators. For example, if your goal is to increase customer satisfaction, you might use surveys, interviews, or focus groups to gather feedback on your product or service quality, features, benefits, and problems. You might also use metrics such as net promoter score, retention rate, or customer lifetime value to quantify your results.

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Anusha Ramini

Business Improvement | Problem Solving | Automation | Technical Leadership | ITSM/ITIL | Stakeholder Management | Mentor
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Firstly, Improvements must be planned proactively. I do this following below approach. Have regular connect sessions with stakeholders to understand the needs of them and how we are serving to fulfil their purpose. Based on the feedback, divide the ideas into quadrants of Importance(Usability and Possibility of improvement) and Value(Effort and Cost). Concentrate on the items with highest importance and achieved through less effort and cost. This way we solve their pain points before they realize. This approach will enable them to build strong relationship and trust.

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2 Choose your feedback sources and tools

Next, you need to decide who you will ask for feedback and how you will collect it. Depending on your project or process scope, you might have different types of stakeholders, such as customers, employees, partners, suppliers, investors, regulators, or competitors. You should aim to get a representative and diverse sample of opinions and perspectives, as well as balance the quantity and quality of feedback. You should also use appropriate tools and techniques to gather and store feedback, such as online surveys, forms, polls, reviews, ratings, comments, emails, calls, chats, or social media.

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Uyi A.
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Stakeholder feedback is crucial for product success, aligning with user needs and expectations. Product managers can use strategies to effectively incorporate feedback into improvement cycles. Creating transparent communication channels with stakeholders through meetings, surveys, and platforms. Actively seek feedback through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or user testing. Segment and prioritize feedback based on strategic goals, user experience impact, or critical issues.

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3 Analyze and prioritize feedback

Once you have collected feedback, you need to analyze it and prioritize it. You should look for patterns, trends, gaps, and outliers in the data, as well as compare it with your goals and metrics. You should also categorize feedback into different types, such as positive, negative, neutral, constructive, or actionable. You should then prioritize feedback based on its relevance, urgency, impact, and feasibility. For example, you might use a matrix or a scoring system to rank feedback according to these criteria and decide which ones to address first.

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4 Implement and communicate feedback

After you have prioritized feedback, you need to implement it and communicate it. You should create an action plan that outlines the steps, resources, responsibilities, and timelines for making the changes or improvements suggested by the feedback. You should also communicate the plan to your stakeholders and keep them updated on the progress and outcomes. You should also acknowledge and thank them for their feedback and show them how you have used it to enhance your work.

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5 Evaluate and iterate feedback

Finally, you need to evaluate and iterate feedback. You should monitor and measure the effects of the changes or improvements you have made based on the feedback. You should also collect new feedback to see if you have met your goals and metrics, as well as identify new areas for improvement. You should then repeat the cycle of defining, choosing, analyzing, implementing, and evaluating feedback until you achieve the desired results or reach the end of your project or process.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Todd Gilliam

Customer Experience Lead | Customer Support Operations | Chief of Staff | Process Improvement | Analytics | Volleyball
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You may find it helpful to frame feedback by customer "gap." While virtually all feedback addresses the difference between expected and received, the drivers for that difference fall into a few categories with very different implications for the organization. 1. We didn't understand what the customer wants 2. We didn't design to deliver what we understood the customer wanting 3. We didn't deliver against our designed experience 4. We didn't communicate/set expectations that matched our CX design. Doing so directs feedback very differently to different part of the organization to act on- consumer research/study, CX design, CX execution, Customer communication/branding.

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How can you incorporate stakeholder feedback into your improvement cycles?

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1 Define your goals and metrics

2 Choose your feedback sources and tools

3 Analyze and prioritize feedback

4 Implement and communicate feedback

5 Evaluate and iterate feedback

6 Here’s what else to consider

Business Reporting

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