The value of user feedback

As the host of a podcast, it's easy to get into a one-way conversation with your audience. Typically, information flows in one direction and is one-way, and one-to-many. It's the nature of the medium.

In the early days of Epicenter, we spoke with listeners often. For a while, Brian, our community manager at the time, and I would each have a call with a subscriber every week. We asked questions about their interests, and listening habits, and asked for feedback on how we could improve the show. We learned a lot from those calls and some of those suggestions where implemented.

Then we stopped. The reason escapes me, but we fell out of that habit, for years. During my entire time at Stratumn, I felt so out of touch with our audience. Working a full-time job as a co-founder took up most of my time and left little place to focus on Epicenter. Apart from a few encounters at conferences, I had little direct contact with our audience.

That changed when I began working full time on Epicenter. Whenever I would meet or have the chance to speak with a listener, I began asking all kinds of questions, trying to extract as much feedback as possible.

About a month ago, I brought back the listeners calls. In fact, reaching out to listeners is now part of my weekly routine. Fridays are ‘community outreach’ day, the day when information flow gets reversed from one-to-many to many-to-one. In the last two weeks, I've had three listener calls which were incredibly valuable and fun. I'm excited about what I've learned and look forward to implementing the feedback I received.

By listening to my listeners, the podcast, and I will grow.