The plural of anecdote is data
This post written by Eric Peden, Director of Operations & Analytics
It’s always instructive when a friend or relative uses MyPunchbowl for the first time. We typically hear very positive comments about how our site makes planning a party easier and more enjoyable. But our friends are also quick to suggest features that they wish we offered.
This anecdotal feedback is very valuable. We collect and contemplate our friends’ suggestions, and they invariably find their way into internal product discussions: The friend who wants Feature X; the aunt who is confused by Feature Y.
These suggestions provide a great starting point for internal discussion. If a friend has identified a problem area, how would that manifest itself in customer behavior? Can we find evidence of that behavior in our tracking data? Is there another company that might face a similar issue? How do they handle it?
Resources are scarce at a startup, and it’s important to know how to incorporate an informal product suggestion into the data-gathering and product improvement processes. We have to remember that a single suggestion, while valuable, is anecdotal. There is no need to go overboard in implementing new features on the basis of a single comment.
On the other hand, the plural of anecdote is data. As MyPunchbowl’s numbers guy, I especially try to remember this aphorism, commonly attributed to Raymond Wolfinger. Anecdotes often give us ideas that we can’t get through customer surveys or other formal methods. When several members of our team report similar friendly suggestions, it usually means we’ve found a new way to improve our product.
