The end of TBM year three. Wow! 156 weeks. 190 posts. Just hit the 3,000,000th view (more importantly, people seem to come back). Thank you so much for your support—all the best for 2023. I do have some news on the career-front which will hopefully take my writing to new (but different) places.
Yes!Yes!Yes! Thank you for this post.NPS is a somewhat lazy excuse for organizations . They don’t focus intellectually on really understanding the human side of their work … with either their employees, customers or other stakeholders. NPS is a fad and not well designed engagement research. Initial dat( question) research should be approximately five questions to identify key pain points. This data will help shape the basis for qualitative research ( possibly focus group . interviews are better
NPS persists because CEOs love to compare their NPS with the NPS of their peers (there is obviously a cruder way to say it but I won't go there). Accordingly, no data scientist or PM is going to "die on that hill" and fight one's CEO. Maybe in 5 or 10 years there will be some HBS article come out that points out all the flaws in NPS and hopefully recommending something better (with enough "big guns" behind it that CEOs take notice) but until then, companies will continue to be fixated on it. (And sensible product leaders find other methods to measure customer satisfaction without the flaws of NPS while still reporting NPS to mollify their senior management. :) )
Venkatesh Rao would be pleased to see the reference to the power of the mediocre!
Thanks for this wise addition to the NPS canon.
It reminds me of a point from the book Hello My Name Is Awesome too (good book btw): if a name must be agreed on by everyone, it’s always the blandest (and so least effective) name that wins.
It is painful how accurate this is. I'm thinking: eNPS, 9-box, story points...
Oooh do you think OKRs are going through a similar pattern? I’ve seen a bunch of beef about them online recently and it rhymes with the NPS beef.
Yes!Yes!Yes! Thank you for this post.NPS is a somewhat lazy excuse for organizations . They don’t focus intellectually on really understanding the human side of their work … with either their employees, customers or other stakeholders. NPS is a fad and not well designed engagement research. Initial dat( question) research should be approximately five questions to identify key pain points. This data will help shape the basis for qualitative research ( possibly focus group . interviews are better
NPS persists because CEOs love to compare their NPS with the NPS of their peers (there is obviously a cruder way to say it but I won't go there). Accordingly, no data scientist or PM is going to "die on that hill" and fight one's CEO. Maybe in 5 or 10 years there will be some HBS article come out that points out all the flaws in NPS and hopefully recommending something better (with enough "big guns" behind it that CEOs take notice) but until then, companies will continue to be fixated on it. (And sensible product leaders find other methods to measure customer satisfaction without the flaws of NPS while still reporting NPS to mollify their senior management. :) )
I looked at the title, rolled my eyes, and thought "nah, I'll pass on reading this"
Glad I didn't. A cracking good read, and a lot resonates.
Happy New Year!
Awesome reflection on NPS! Happy New Year and looking forward to more of your thoughts!
Venkatesh Rao would be pleased to see the reference to the power of the mediocre!
Thanks for this wise addition to the NPS canon.
It reminds me of a point from the book Hello My Name Is Awesome too (good book btw): if a name must be agreed on by everyone, it’s always the blandest (and so least effective) name that wins.