Filtered Feedback-be careful

GIGO is a common computer term. It stands for Garbage In Garbage Out. No matter how good the system is if the inputs are bad, you only get worthless results. However in the real world GIGO too often stands for Garbage In Gospel Out. If the information is displayed on a computer screen or printed on a computer generated report it will be believed. I shudder when I think of the decisions that are made based on wrong information just because it comes from a computer.

When I was younger, I hitchhiked thousands of miles around the United States. I had many wonderful experiences and only one slightly negative encounter. If you are like most people you want to know more about that one negative experience and not about all the wonderful encounters. That's why hitchhiking has a bad reputation - the bad stories are repeated and no one talks about the good ones.

You cannot run a business without feedback from suppliers, employees and customers. Unfortunately, most feedback is biased. If it comes from a computer, it has to be correct. If it's a juicy story, you'll hear about it.

In the early days of my software company we had no money to hire anybody. Not only did I write the software but I also did the training for all the new clients. This did have benefits. After programming new features into the software at night I would be training new users the next morning. This gave me immediate feedback on what worked and what was confusing. I could then make changes that night to simplify the software. With this setup I got direct feedback. Nothing was filtered and no assumptions were made.

Once we had grown to the point we could hire trainers I lost some of the direct feedback. Sometimes a trainer would think that a confusing section of the software 'had to be that way' or would be very difficult to change so would not bring it to my attention. However the greater benefit was to have a different outlook on what the end user liked. This perspective gave me the insight needed to improve the software in ways I would not have done on my own.

Most of the feedback you will get is filtered. People will not tell you negatives because they don't want to hurt your feelings. Others will determine something is unimportant and therefore not tell you about it. On top of that the individuals have thier own problems due to lack of feedback. Without valid feedback most people tend to magnify both their strengths and weaknesses. This then complicates the information they give to others.

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