Heather O'Neal: Quantitative Data Is as Subjective as Qualitative Data
Heather O'Neal · Your Untapped Resource for Creating a Compelling Product Roadmap · Jul 6, 2023 · at 8:11
Product strategist Heather O'Neal argues at SaaSOpen against the assumption that quantitative data is inherently superior to qualitative feedback.
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“Numbers are subjective because we give them meaning. Six million is always six million. That's why numbers are objective, because the quantity doesn't change. But what we believe about it, and the decisions we make because of it, that's the thing that changed, and that's why quantitative data is just as subjective as qualitative data.”
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More from Heather O'Neal
O'Neal: Customer Success Holds More Qualitative Data Than UX Teams
“And the one place in your company that has the most qualitative data, unfortunately, isn't UX, even though I would love it to be, but like, in UX research, you can't talk to 4000 people in a month, most months. Customer success is already doing that.”
O'Neal: Software features do not win customers
“Features don't get you customers, right? Nobody wants your product for its own sake. Nobody wants to use it. If they could not use your product and do the thing they need to do, they would not use your product.”
O'Neal: 90% of prospects demanding specific features will never buy
“Customers tell us all the time, oh, if you just build this, I'll buy it. They're not going to buy it. Nine times out of 10, they're gonna come in, they're gonna say, oh yeah, we'll totally buy if you build this one thing, you build this thing, they don't buy.”
O'Neal: Users churn when product roadmaps ignore usability bugs for features
“There are tons of things in your app that just don't work well, and when your roadmap doesn't account for those, people start churning because they get frustrated, because somebody scrappier and newer comes out and creates something better that feels less hard…”
O'Neal: Most CS Systems Fail to Deliver Actionable Product Insights
“Well, most customer success systems They don't deliver information that's valuable for product teams, right? They deliver information that's valuable for customer success teams, like how long does it take people to solve an issue?”