🐠 Fishfood

✏️ Definition

Fishfood refers to an internal testing phase where a product or feature is released to employees within the company before it is made available to external users. This method allows developers and other team members to “feed” the product development process with early feedback, much like feeding fish. The goal is to catch initial bugs, gather insights on usability, and make iterative improvements based on the experiences of employees who use the product in a real-world environment. This process helps ensure the product is more polished and user-friendly by the time it reaches external testers or the general public.

+ Benefits

Early bug detection

Fishfood allows teams to identify and resolve technical issues and bugs early in the development cycle. By testing the product internally first, developers can catch and fix problems before the product is exposed to external users, reducing the risk of negative user experiences and feedback.

Real-world feedback

Employees using the product in their day-to-day activities can provide realistic and practical feedback on its functionality and user experience. This internal testing mimics real-world usage, providing valuable insights that can lead to more relevant and user-centered product improvements.

Risk mitigation

By conducting fishfood testing, companies can mitigate the risk associated with a wider public launch. It serves as a preliminary checkpoint to ensure that the product meets certain quality standards and operational expectations, which can help prevent costly failures or negative public receptions later on.

📒 Playbook

⏮️ Prepare

Define objectives: Set clear objectives for what the Fishfood testing should achieve (e.g., usability, functionality). Establish key metrics to evaluate success, such as issue count and user feedback scores.

Select participants: Choose a diverse group of employees from various roles. Clearly explain the test goals, expectations, and feedback mechanisms.

Set up environment: Provide basic training on the product’s features and testing procedures. Ensure all testers have the necessary tools and access.

▶️ Run

Monitor and Support: Keep an eye on the testing process to catch and address any critical issues. Offer immediate support for any technical problems or questions.

Collect Feedback: Use scheduled surveys and check-ins to gather consistent and structured feedback.

Manage Issues: Log issues and feedback for review. Focus on resolving major issues that impact the testing outcomes.

⏭️ After

Analyze and Report: Evaluate the collected data to identify trends and insights. Summarize findings and propose actionable improvements.

Review and Implement: Discuss the results with stakeholders to decide on the next steps. Outline changes to the product based on tester feedback.

Feedback Loop: Inform testers about how their feedback has influenced product changes.

Lessons Learned: Note what worked and what didn’t for refining future Fishfood tests.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Inadequate participant diversity

A lack of diversity among internal testers can skew results, as feedback might not represent the broader user base. This can result in missing critical usability issues that diverse or less technically inclined users might encounter. To avoid this, ensure a varied group of testers from different departments, backgrounds, and skill levels to capture a wide range of perspectives.

Poor feedback collection and management

Effective feedback collection and management are crucial. Without structured methods for capturing and analyzing feedback, important insights can be overlooked. Failing to act on the feedback can also demotivate testers and reduce the effectiveness of future testing phases. Implement regular surveys, focus groups, or dedicated feedback tools, and make sure all feedback is systematically logged, reviewed, and acted upon.

Lack of clear goals and communication

Testers might not understand what aspects of the product they should focus on or what type of feedback is most valuable if goals and expectations are not clearly communicated. This can lead to irrelevant or superficial feedback. To mitigate this, provide testers with specific goals, detailed instructions, and examples of useful feedback at the outset of testing. Maintain regular communication to emphasize the importance of their input and explain how it impacts the product development process.

👉 Example

⏮️ Prepare

Goals defined: To evaluate the usability and functionality of HostSpot, focusing particularly on its new feature that suggests personalized travel itineraries.

Metrics established: Key performance indicators included app stability, user engagement levels, and the accuracy of itinerary suggestions.

Participant selection: The testing team selected 20 employees from various departments including marketing, engineering, and customer support, ensuring a mix of tech-savvy users and those less familiar with digital travel tools.

Test preparation: Training sessions were held to familiarize participants with the app’s features and testing protocols. Each participant was provided with access to the app installed on their company-provided smartphones.

▶️ Conduct

Monitoring and Support: The product team monitored app usage through backend analytics and provided real-time support via a dedicated Slack channel.

Feedback Collection: Participants were required to complete a daily feedback form rating their experience and providing qualitative feedback on any issues encountered.

Issue Management: The team logged 45 distinct issues during the testing period, ranging from minor UI glitches to significant bugs affecting the itinerary generation logic.

⏭️ After

Analysis and reporting

Data compilation: Feedback and issue logs were compiled and analyzed. The data showed a 70% satisfaction rate with the app’s user interface but only a 50% satisfaction rate with the accuracy of travel suggestions.

Review and action: The findings were presented in a comprehensive report during a review session with stakeholders. Key issues were prioritized for resolution, with particular focus on improving the itinerary suggestion algorithm.

Results and next steps

Enhancements made: Based on tester feedback, the app’s itinerary suggestion feature was overhauled to incorporate more local data points and user preferences, significantly improving its accuracy.

Communicating feedback: Participants were informed about how their feedback directly influenced the app improvements, with a detailed overview of changes made.

Documenting lessons learned: The team documented key learnings, particularly around the need for more rigorous initial data validation before testing, to refine future Fishfood tests.

Feedback loop and continuous improvement

Ongoing monitoring: Post-improvement, a second round of Fishfood testing was scheduled to ensure the changes were effective and to gather more feedback for future updates.

Long-term enhancements: Plans were made to introduce a feature that allows users to submit spontaneous feedback within the app, facilitating continuous improvement beyond structured testing phases.

Disclaimer: This is a hypothetical example created to demonstrate how Fishfood can be applied to an Airbnb-like platform. All scenarios, participants, and data are fictional and meant for illustrative purposes only.