Would you rather: fix all bugs or prepare a playbook for support?

Question

Imagine: you're about to launch your product but have limited time and resources. You do know that your product has a few issues in it, and you are sure that your team will only be able to fix some of them before the launch. Given that situation: would you rather do everything and more to fix all issues in time or prepare some communication playbook and instructions for the support team to help your first users? 🤔

Shubham Pratap Singh · Accepted Answer

I think we should have a working MVP first for the launch and later we can fix the bugs. 
But if any bugs are a blocker, and users are not able to use the product because if that, then it's the priority to fix that.

Janine N · Answer

This is such a tricky question to answer. As mentioned in the comments below it is definitely an issue of how critical the bugs are. You want to make sure that users can perform the main tasks your product was intended for. But to be honest I also think having a well-prepared support team is important.
In my head the question would maybe not be "would you rather", but more "how can we holistically prioritise support-team-prep and critical-bug-fixing to achieve the best possible experience for the users at this point?

Whenever we have to make decisions where limited resources are at play I am super aware to not always prioritise the tech. The applications we create need to run, of course, but the holistic experience is what counts in the end.

Maybe this offers a slightly different perspective on the topic :).

Hello_Joy · Answer

I think it could be a key strategy to launch first and add that it's a beta version. If people feel uncomfortable using it, but use it continuously? It means you find the perfect MVP

Kate Kovbii · Answer

@shubham_pratap yeah, that totally makes sense! Especially when it comes to core functionality 😌 Thanks for sharing your thoughts! It is more than valuable!

Denis Anisimov · Answer

@kate_kovbii I guess... I was in trouble? :) But no-one was: no-shame culture in the team, and our users are the best and were actually happy to hear that there is already a better way.

We have daily standups, and also the majority of customer conversations are going through HubSpot, so it's easy to see what's going on with each user.

Kate Kovbii · Answer

@dbanisimov hehe 😁 Happy to hear that! And more than happy to hear about your no shame all love culture (hope it’s okay that I added this “love” part😅)

Kate Kovbii · Answer

@dbanisimov oh my 😅 So how did you figure that your team kept telling users some outdated info? 😬 And was your team in trouble after that? 😅
Also - thanks a lot for your answer! It is a wise approach to do both 😌

Denis Anisimov · Answer

Why not both? I'd go over each issue one-by-one and either write a support playbook page, or add it to a development to-do. Some of those bugs might be easier to fix, than to explain a workaround for 🤔

And as other folks mentioned, the show-stopper bugs must be addressed, unless you're very confident in your team's ability to provide real-time support to everyone.

Just don't forget to update the playbook once the issue is no longer relevant. It's been a few times when I've fixed the bug/UX issue already, but the team was still unaware of it and kept telling users outdated workarounds 😆

Kate Kovbii · Answer

@joy_eom that is awesome idea! Aaaaand I think I saw some kind of research that overcoming your users poor experience by kind and helpful support can even boost your sales 👀

Charlie Kor · Answer

Hi Kate! If the bugs aren't impacting critical functions of your product, I suggest prioritizing onboarding your users instead. This will help you make the most of your limited time and resources.

In my opinion, it's important to continually update our product based on user feedback. That's why I recommend focusing on communicating with users and gathering their sincere feedback. Don't worry about achieving perfection all at once, just keep taking steps forward..

Good luck Kate!

Kate Kovbii · Answer

@janine_nitz it is! And this is such a great way to look on the situation! Thank you for sharing your thoughts! ❤️
I'm in the "holistic experience" team as well! 🙋‍♀️ And sure that user experience do go before tech. Simply because users don't care how great or bad (😬) your code written if it run your feature and do what it should do 😌

Kate Kovbii · Answer

@charlie_lee1 can't agree more! Any critical bugs in core functionality should be first priority 😌 Thankd for sharing your thoughts! And updating product based on users feedback - yes, yes and yes! Tht's a great strategy to follow! ❤️

Would you rather: fix all bugs or prepare a playbook for support?

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