12 Product Feedback Questions Used by Top Companies

“Talk to the customer” might be the single most common piece of advice you’ll get as a product manager.

Good product feedback questions can unlock insights that help move your product and business forward. Asking the right questions can get you closer to hitting every KPI on your list.

But knowing what to ask—and how to ask it—in these feedback surveys is critical.

Through user interviews, customer feedback surveys, feedback forms, and in-app feedback collection you can get honest and quality product feedback from the people who matter most. You can gauge customer satisfaction and create a comprehensive picture of the product’s strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, you can determine what you need to do to improve the product and match it to customers’ expectations.

“Trying to learn from customer conversations is like excavating a delicate archaeological site. The truth is down there somewhere, but it’s fragile. While each blow with your shovel gets you closer to the truth, you’re liable to smash it into a million little pieces if you use too blunt an instrument.”

― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

‍
{{resources-component-1}}

But what should you ask in the product feedback survey?

We have created a list of crucial questions that can help you get closer to customers and garner valuable insights about their opinions and even their peeves. Let’s dive in!
‍

1. Tell us about the problem you were experiencing without our product?

2. What are you aiming to achieve with our product?

3. How would you compare our product to our competitors?

4. If our product no longer existed, what might you replace it with?

5. Are you likely to recommend this product?

6. What convinced you to use/buy our product?

7. What’s missing from your product experience?

8. Do you feel that our product is worth the cost?

9. What job are you trying to accomplish with this product?

10. How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?

11. If you had $100 for our development budget how would you spend it?

12. How often do you use our product?

1. Tell us about the problem you were experiencing without our product?

The best product feedback and insight often comes from talking about everything but the product. The customer, their problems, their other solutions, how they work, etc.

What you’re looking for

Dig into specifics. You’re looking for a narrative and commentary about the problem your product solves. And you want it in the customers' words.

Follow-up questions

• What were you doing to solve the problem before using out product?
• What’s at stake if the problem doesn’t get solved?
• How does that problem make you feel?

The customers' feelings and emotions around the problem can be hard to pin down, but extremely important to have a grasp on. Knowing what issues get them most fired up is key to knowing what features to build.

2. What are you aiming to achieve with our product?

This question will clarify what customers want and whether your product successfully satisfies that want. You can also determine why people use your product and what they expect from it.

What you’re looking for

Don’t be afraid to ask for details. For example, if someone says their goal is to “save time”, ask “how much time” to pinpoint exactly what they are looking for. Similarly, if they say that their goal is to streamline a business process, ask them to clarify what problem they are aiming to solve.

Follow-up questions

• Where did you first hear our product mentioned?
• Why did you choose our product?
• Does using this product help you accomplish your goal?
• If not, which alternative would you choose and why?

Use these responses to further understand customer requirements and translate those requirements into new or improved features.

3. How would you compare our product to our competitors?

If your product is not unique, you want to know how it stacks up against other products. An apples-to-apples comparison of your product with others will help you understand your product’s position and get a handle on customer loyalty. All of this information can guide your product positioning and marketing strategy.

What you’re looking for

Ask respondents to specify the names of competitor products, so you have tangible information to compare your product and assess its position vis-à-vis other products.

Follow-up questions

• What would make you choose our product over our competitors?
• What important features are we missing?
• If we fix this bug or add this feature, would you buy our product?

4. If our product no longer existed, what might you replace it with?

It’s good to ask about competitors (see above). But often this can lead to narrow answers, and customers thinking the need to answer with a specific category competitor (Coke vs. Pepsi, for example). Often, though, it’s the alternative you’re looking for (Coke vs. taking a brisk walk). Because without you in the picture, the customer may not use a competitor at all. They may have some other solution to the problem you didn’t expect. And within this answer is a goldmine of context on how your product is perceived and the value it’s providing.

What you’re looking for

Typically an alternative option won’t match what you offer feature-for-feature. Pay close attention to what those differences are, and how the customer works through the tradeoffs. That’s the product insight gold.

Follow-up questions

• Why did you pick that option?
• What would be the hardest part of using that other option?
• Would there be better parts about using that other option?

5. Are you likely to recommend this product?

By asking this question, you can develop a better idea of how likely the respondent is to use your product and suggest it to others. It will provide a true indication of the customer’s feelings about the product. When they recommend it to others, it shows that they trust you and are willing to get behind you.

What you’re looking for

It’s best to give respondents a limited set of options to understand the probability of getting a recommendation from them. Either give them a scale (1-10) or provide clear options like “highly likely”, “somewhat likely”, “unlikely”, and “highly unlikely.”

Follow-up questions

Once you get tangible responses, ask these open-ended questions to dig deeper into their reasoning and understand how they make informed decisions to buy or not buy:

• Which features could influence your decision to recommend our product?
• Who else could find our product useful?
• Would you recommend our product over other products?
• When was the last time you recommended us? Can you share how and why that happened?

6. What convinced you to use/buy our product?

What was the “hook” that convinced customers to buy your product? Gathering feedback about this (or these) driving factors will help you understand what really matters to your buyers. You can then emphasize those features in marketing and branding to promote the product and grow your customer base.

What you’re looking for

Get specific user feedback to unpack what they liked about your product and what convinced them to buy it. If they disliked something but still completed the purchase, ask for details. Even if they did convert, you should identify the weaknesses that may prevent others from converting.

Follow-up questions

Dig deeper to understand how and why the sale happened. Ask these question types to understand the average buyer’s psyche and inform your marketing and positioning:

• What do you like about our product?
• Which features did you find to be the most valuable?
• What changed for you after you began using our product?

7. What’s missing from your product experience?

When you ask questions about customers’ product experiences, they feel their voices matter. They will therefore be more open to sharing their honest opinion, concerns, and complaints – all valuable information that will help you improve the product and make them say “wow”.

What you’re looking for

Before asking customers about their product and user experiences, gather information about their needs. Information about what customers are looking for will help you compare whether they met their goals with your product.

If possible, provide detailed and clear documentation such as walkthroughs or user guides before a customer starts using the product. These collaterals will go a long way towards improving the overall customer experience.

Follow-up questions

Product experience is a fairly broad area, and many things could impact it. To unpack the hidden details and inform your product improvement or optimization strategies, ask these follow-up customer feedback questions:

• What do you dislike about our product?
• What important features are we missing?
• How could we improve it to better meet your needs?
• Is there anything you’d like to add to improve your overall experience?

8. Do you feel that our product is worth the cost?

All buyers want a good return on their investment. What they don’t want is to pay a hefty sum for a product they don’t like or find difficult to use. That’s why it’s important to add this question to your product survey questionnaire. By asking this question, you can begin to determine if customers think your product offers good value for their money and figure out what to do if it doesn’t.

What you’re looking for

If your offerings are perceived as poor value, you may need to re-evaluate your pricing model or make your value proposition clearer so buyers can see exactly what they get with their money.

Follow-up questions

A yes/no answer to the main question may not elicit the actionable insights you need to understand customers’ budgets and update your pricing structure. To gather this information, ask the target audience these follow-up questions:

• What do you think would qualify as a fair price for the product?
• What price would convince you to buy this product again?
• Would you consider paying more if we added more features?
• Would you prefer to pay less if we removed some features you don’t need?

9. What job are you trying to accomplish with this product?

The jobs-to-be-done framework is based on the concept that customers “hire” products to do a specific job.” And the key to understanding your customer and product, is knowing what job they hire the product for. 

What you’re looking for

Don’t let the customer off the hook too easily here. This one can trigger some initial confusion or speculation (“I didn’t hire it, I bought it”). Help them through. Give them examples, once they understand conceptually what you’re asking, they’re very likely to play along.

Follow-up questions

• What else have you tried to hire for that job?
• What makes our product a good fit for this job?

10. How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?

“How would you feel” is a powerful mechanism when asking questions. Ask someone what they do or what they think and you’ll get a polished, logical (and often unhelpful) answer. But ask what they feel and you can get to the heart of what brought them to the product in the first place. 

What you’re looking for

What parts of the product experience trigger emotion? Pay attention to what product specifics get called out.

Follow-up questions

• Why do you think you’d feel that way?
• How might your life be different without the product?
• What would you do to replace the product if you couldn’t use this one?

‍

11. If you had $100 for our development budget how would you spend it?

Credit to Michael Sippey for this one. Sippey is an experienced product leader and advisor, presently at Outside as Chief Product Officer and former VP of Product for Twitter.

From Michael:

“You’re asking them to imagine a pie totaling $100. How would they allocate those development resources for your team? This can be another powerful way to open the floodgates and get customers’ honest reactions — even if those reactions aren’t what you want to hear.”

What you’re looking for

Listen not just for how they allocate, but how they describe the categories. “Upkeep” is a different reaction than “fix all those horrible bugs.”

Follow-up questions

• Why did you allocate how you did?
• What makes this the top category in your opinion?

12. How often do you use our product?

You might be thinking: we already capture usage analytics? Why would I ask? But the fact is, there may be patterns or behavior you’re not capturing—alongside extra commentary around why people log in.

What you’re looking for

Any extra context around how often people are using the product and why. For example, “I usually get in right before our 10 a.m. standup meeting” can be valuable detail that you wouldn’t otherwise see in your usage dashboards.

Follow-up questions

• What are the triggers or habits that make you get into the product?
• Do you wish you used it more or less? Why?
• What’s going on while you’re in the product? Are you looking at it with someone else? On a call? Sending Slack messages?

These questions will help you build a rich picture to complement product data and make predictions and plans about your product’s future direction.

Want to simplify feedback collection? LaunchNotes has you covered

LaunchNotes is built for product teams, managers, and marketers looking to simplify feedback collection.

Schedule a demo to know why so many industry leaders trust LaunchNotes.

‍