Feedback volume in the Autodesk Labs TPS Report

The other day, I blogged about activity and participant counting. Today's topic is feedback volume.

Having worked for large companies like Honeywell, GTE, and Océ, I am a fan of the movie Office Space. So when I first started producing monthly reports for Autodesk Labs, I named my reports the Technology Preview Strategy Report so it would be TPS Report for short. I now produce them quarterly, but the name has stuck.

Product development teams are the ones who supply me with technologies to preview on Autodesk Labs. The TPS Reports include counts of the new, updated, retired, and graduated technology previews to show how actively the teams are leveraging the Autodesk Labs process. Recall that the technology previews come from the same teams that do the product development, so those developers have day jobs in addition to creating and responding to feedback for a technology preview.

In addition to feedback sentiment (e.g., "I love it." or "I hate it."), I also look at the volume of feedback received. Feedback is a measure of interest. Even if a technology preview has a high number of participants, if there is little feedback, that is typically an indication of lack of interest. If participants are actively using a technology preview, as opposed to joining a project but taking no action, and there is an issue, they are normally very vocal about what went wrong. So when there is little to no feedback, that means that either the technology preview is perfect (which is doubtful) or there is little interest (which is plausible). So that's why I always say: "Trying something, liking it but not telling us, is the same as not trying it." We need the affirmation for the technology preview to take the next step.

Here are the top 10 projects in terms of volume of feedback.

Thanks to the Autodesk Labs community members who are participating in these technology previews. We know that you have day jobs too — places to build, things to make, and media to bring to life. Thank for taking the time out of your day to register for a technology preview, try it, and most specifically, sharing your feedback. Your experience shapes the future of our technology. Without you, the product development teams are like trees falling in the woods.

Feedback volume measurement is alive in the lab.