Complaint-Driven Development
blog.codinghorror.com
If I haven't blogged much in the last year, it's because we've been busy building that civilized discourse construction kit thing I talked about. (Yes, that's actually the name of the company. This is what happens when you put me in charge of naming things. Pinball machines, people, what's the

Complaint-Driven Development (CDD) is a powerful strategy that allows you to continuously improve your products and services based on direct user feedback. Unlike traditional feature request-driven development, CDD encourages users to voice their complaints and pain points, enabling developers to identify and address the root causes of recurring issues.

One of the challenges that often arises is the “XY problem,” where users propose feature requests that they believe will solve their issues, but in reality, these solutions may not be the most effective or efficient. CDD tackles this by encouraging users to articulate their complaints and frustrations, rather than proposing specific feature requests. This open communication fosters a collaborative environment where the community can collectively explore and evaluate potential solutions, ensuring that the implemented changes truly address the core issues.

Moreover, CDD empowers users to be active participants in the development process. When users feel heard and their feedback is valued, it strengthens the relationship between the product team and its user base, cultivating a loyal and engaged community.

The philosophy of Complaint-Driven Development provides a simple, transparent way to prioritize issues based on user feedback:

  1. Get the platform in front of as many users as possible.
  2. Listen openly to all user complaints and feedback. Expect a lot of it.
  3. Identify the top 3 most frequently reported issues/pain points.
  4. Prioritize fixing those top 3 issues.
  5. Repeat the process, continuously improving based on prominent user complaints.

To implement this approach, consider periodically making a post like “What are your complaints about [Product Name]? Developers may want your feedback.” This post encourages users to leave one top-level comment per complaint, allowing others to reply with ideas or existing GitHub issues that could address those complaints. This will help you identify common complaints and potential solutions from your community.

Once you have a collection of complaints and suggestions, review them carefully and choose the top 3 most frequently reported issues to focus on for the next development cycle. Clearly communicate to the community which issues you and the team will be prioritizing based on this user feedback, and explain why you’ve chosen those particular issues. This transparency will help users understand your thought process and feel heard.

As you work on addressing those prioritized issues, keep the community updated on your progress. When the issues are resolved, make a new release and announce it to the community, acknowledging their feedback that helped shape the improvements.

Then, repeat the process: Make a new post gathering complaints and suggestions, review them, prioritize the top 3 issues, communicate your priorities, work on addressing them, release the improvements, and start the cycle again.

By continuously involving the community in this feedback loop, you foster a sense of ownership and leverage the collective wisdom of your user base in a transparent, user-driven manner. This approach allows teams to identify and address the root causes of user frustrations, leading to more effective and user-centric solutions.