Startups - you can learn a lot from a bear mascot dressed in a bird suit. @brizzly
I tend to sign up for a lot of alpha and beta testing because I like to see what is new and how people think. As a result, I have seen a lot of ingenious ideas and some really bad ones. Either way, it is something I enjoy doing and it keeps new ideas churning in my brain.
Yesterday, I found myself completing a survey on behalf of Brizzly. Why? Well, you could say it's because their mascot is so darn cute that I couldn't resist.
But, in reality, it was because they asked.
Yes, that's the simple reason that I completed their survey. You would think that a survey would be commonplace and that with all of the alpha/beta tests I participate in that this would have been just another step in the process. However, Brizzly was the first company in quite a while that actually requested that their users answer some questions in order to assist them in making a better product.
And, to their credit, these weren't multiple choice questions. So, in the end, the team over there is going to have to sit down and do some serious reading in order to parse through the responses. I hope that their offices are near a local coffee shop because they are going to need it. However, they now have some invaluable data and may have potentially obtained some new direction for their company.
In the last year, I have alpha or beta tested no less than a couple dozen products - this was my first user survey that I was asked to complete on behalf of product that I was 'testing'.
So, if your startup is constantly soliciting feedback with surveys and other methodologies, congratulations. If you're not doing this, take a few notes on how Brizzly is doing it and follow in those little bear footsteps - you can learn a lot!
