Product feedback templates for user research

Gaining valuable insights from user feedback is essential if you want to know whether customers are happy with your product or service and what you can do to improve it.

There are two main ways of gathering user feedback.

• Conversation: this may in be in a group or a focused one-on-one setting. Discussion-based user research produces qualitative data.

• Survey: the data gathered via surveys is more quantitative, as it is often represented by numbers, amounts, and percentages. However, certain questions can also return qualitative data.

Using the most suitable product feedback template will make it easier for you to gather the right data. There are several different kinds, and in this article, we share the best templates for collecting user feedback.

The goal of product feedback is to discover what your customers think about your product. You can then make improvements and increase its value so it will better solve a problem of the target market.

This is achieved by asking users questions so they can tell you about their unmet needs, successes, and ideas about how you can improve the product. Knowing which product feedback templates to use will help you make informed decisions about which ones best suit your needs.

A good feedback template provides the foundation for capturing and representing relevant data. The information you receive will allow you to discover patterns, opportunities, and gaps to enhance your product for your target market and segments.

An ineffective feedback template will result in data that is not representative of the whole target market. The information will not be structured well enough to generate hypotheses, models, or new features.

A good feedback template will not only help you ask the right questions but can also provide valuable insights into when and how the user gives their opinion. Asking questions at the right time and in the right way will result in focused data based on your research goal, allowing you to improve your customers’ experience.

Knowing what to ask can be tricky, and it takes time to plan an effective feedback form. To help you, let’s look at some best practices when gathering user feedback.

Even if you consider yourself an expert in user feedback techniques, reviewing these points will refresh your knowledge and ensure you’re getting the most relevant data for your research goal.

Collect feedback intentionally

Using a one-size-fits-all feedback template will not give you the answers you need about your product. Before creating your feedback form, ask yourself the following questions:

• What information do I need from users to improve my product?

• What is the hypothesis I’d like to test?

• What missing information is preventing me from reaching my research goal?

If you clearly define your purpose and goal at the start, you can target which questions will be most helpful in achieving your research goals.

Trigger your survey contextually

Ensure your survey appears to the user at the right time and in the right place in their user journey. This will increase the rate of response and provide more valuable data.

Remember that users are more likely to fill out feedback forms if they are short, easy, and specific.

Collect quantitative and qualitative data

Asking survey questions that return quantitative and qualitative data will give you a holistic perspective of your respondents’ views.

Depending on your goal and the questions asked, qualitative data may include your user's experience, why they like or don’t like a particular feature, and more. Coding your qualitative data by keyword will make it easier to sort and make sense of, so you can generate patterns and analyze the data more easily.

Quantitative data is essentially numbers and is easy to analyze and display in graphs and tables.

You can gather qualitative and quantitative data by varying the types of questions you ask. For example, you could include numerical score-based questions and open-ended questions.

Mix active and passive feedback forms

Collecting user feedback through active and passive forms will give you a more comprehensive view of your user's thoughts and experience with your product.

Active feedback forms, such as triggered surveys based on platform events, allow you to accurately time the appearance of your survey to coincide with certain points in the user journey.

Passive feedback forms allow the customer to choose when they will share their insights if something stands out to them, for example, “Tell us what you think.”

Using multiple digital channels

Here are some ways you could use your digital platform to gather user feedback:

• Chatbot feedback form: After a support call with a chatbot or live support, ask customers a few questions.

• Website feedback form: this method is particularly useful if you have an automation in place that is triggered by a particular event. For example, a visitor may have put something in their basket but has not checked out. The customer may be willing to offer valuable insights into what they need before they commit to a purchase.

• Public roadmap: this method allows your users to vote and nominate new ideas. It is a fun and productive way to increase engagement and build a community.

• Email surveys: you can send a feedback form via email after a visitor has made a purchase or completed a particular event on your platform. A benefit of this method is that the user has more time to reflect.

Avoid asking biased questions

A biased question guides the respondent to a particular answer, for example, “How good is the product?” This kind of question will deter customers from being open about changes or improvements they would like to see.

Unbiased questions leave room for either positive or negative feedback, so you’re getting information that accurately reflects the user’s experience and needs.

The best product feedback templates offer flexibility so you can adapt them to your platform. 

Start with a simple question, add variations, and structure the questions in the most appropriate way to uncover the information you need.

Demographic and psychographic data questions

Try to include demographic and psychographic questions in your feedback survey, like age and hobbies, to understand your customers. Brief user-persona questions can help you learn not only who is using your products but also why they chose you and what they’re hoping for from their experience.

Template questions:

• What is your salary?

• How do you spend your free time?

• What is your level of education?

• What are your favorite brands?

• What are your most-used apps?

New product survey

Including a survey with a new release can increase users' responses in the short term. A survey for a new product or feature can help you discover how satisfied your users are and what they would like to see in the future.

Template questions:

• What do you love the most?

• What is missing?

• What would make you come back sooner to use it?

• Which features do you find useful?

• Which features should we improve?

Cancellation survey

When a customer decides they no longer need your product or have found a different one that works better for them, use a cancellation survey to discover why they have left. This obviously works for subscription-based products or services, rather than one-off purchases.

Using a simple multiple-choice format with a space for additional comments enables the customer to quickly fill out the survey, and explain what they want in more detail if need be. This data can be added to existing data for analysis to reduce your churn rate.

Keeping your cancellation survey short.

Template questions:

• Why did you decide to cancel your subscription?

• What did we not provide for you that you needed?

• What would make you come back?

Net promoter score survey

A net promoter score (NPS) is a key indicator of the likelihood that one user will tell someone else to buy your product or use your service. This is organic marketing and often the most effective way for companies to build trust and earn user loyalty, as these customers are often easier to convert than a cold sell.

• How likely are you to recommend this product?

• How satisfied are you with the service you have received?

• How has this product met your expectations?

Product review survey

A product review form allows you to evaluate data from users after they have had some time using your product. This is valuable information because it gives you insight into the "complete experience" of satisfied users who plan to continue using your product, as well as unsatisfied customers.

Using a simple rating system to understand how users feel about the quality, price, and value of your product.

Template questions:

• How would you rate this product?

• Would you recommend this product to your colleagues or friends?

• How do you find our customer service?

• Do we help you accomplish [insert a goal your solution offers]?

• How can we make it easier to start and finish [insert a task or goal related to the product]?

Price estimation survey

A pricing estimation survey tells you how much your potential customers value your product. This is ideal for companies looking to offer existing platform products to a new market segment.

Template questions:

• Which features do you consider most valuable?

• What would you consider a fair price?

• What would you consider an unreasonable price for this product?

• How can we make it more valuable?

• How long does it take you to finish [customer goals] and how can we make it better?

Product feedback analysis template

With so much incoming information, it's vital to keep track of all the data inputs and survey responses across multiple digital channels.

To save time, reduce frustration, and optimize your research, you can use the Dovetail feedback analysis template. Even with data coming in from different sources, you will be able to see emerging themes and prioritize your most important product goals to deepen your research or plan for launching improvements.

The visual layout represents the unmet needs of your customers and is structured in a way so you and your team can centralize and simplify what you need to know now and do next. You can also easily prioritize issues that matter most to your users by seeing what concerns them and what is the next big issue to solve.

Product feedback templates that follow best practices will help you gain valuable insight into your customers’ needs and their views of your products. Asking the right questions at the right time and in an unbiased and clear manner provides valuable data.

Using some of the sample survey questions in this article as a basis for your feedback form will help you collect the most useful data at different times in your users' journey.

Once responses are coming in, you will need to organize your user feedback. An efficient template structured for analysis, such as the one we provide here at Dovetail, will help you gain clarity and make sense of your valuable data. You will easily uncover statistically significant patterns and leading hypotheses to test and validate for the next iteration of your product.