The customer survey blind spot
Happy active users do not represent everyone who tried the product. · PM Drills · 21 · 30 sec–2 min
The customer survey blind spot · 30 sec–2 min
Situation
Ninety percent of survey respondents love the product.
The survey appeared only inside the app and was completed by frequent users. Recent churn is increasing.
Think before scrolling
What does the survey tell you, and what does it omit?
How would you seek the missing perspective?
How a strong PM thinks
Name the sampled population.
The result describes respondents among active users who encountered and chose to answer the survey. It says little about people who left or stopped opening the app.
Study churned and inactive cohorts through appropriate outreach and behavioral data. Compare reasons, segments, and timing. Keep the positive feedback as evidence about a group, while resisting a claim about all customers.
Takeaway
Every dataset has an inclusion rule.
Interpret the result in relation to who could appear in it and who could not.