There are plenty of ways to get useful and constructive feedback. It starts with looking someone in the eye, with having a direct one on one conversation or email correspondence with a customer who cares. Forms, surveys, mass emails, tweets--none of this is going to do anything but depress you, confuse you (hey, half the audience wants one thing, the other half wants the opposite!) or paralyze you.

I'm arguing that it's a positive habit to deliberately insulate yourself from this feedback. Don't ask for it and don't look for it.

Yes, change what you make to enhance delight. No, don't punish yourself by listening to the mob.

Once again, I find myself linking to Seth Godin. But wow, isn't this so true? Don't you really know this in your gut and were afraid to admit it to yourself? Don't you want so much to appear caring and sympathetic to all your customers' and potential customers' feedback?

And yet, we know not all feedback is good. The super-public, instant-soapbox, drive-by feedback is, by its very nature, usually unhelpful. It's distracting at best, depressing at worst.

I love his closing suggestion: make whatever it is you make with the customer in mind (of course!), but don't let the crowd with pitchforks and torches run the project.