In the previous chapter, you learned how to measure how your applications are performing in production. You learned how to gather crash reports and logs and how to instrument an application. However, the purpose of software is not just to deliver perfectly running applications, but to create business value. Gathering user feedback is necessary to determine whether your application is also achieving this higher goal. In this chapter, you will learn techniques to measure whether your users are satisfied, which features they are using and which they are not, and how you can use this information to steer future developments.

To do this, this chapter starts by introducing the concept of continuous feedback. Next, it moves on to introduce different approaches to asking users for feedback and recording their responses. This can be both in-application or via other channels. Besides gathering feedback directly, you can also tap into other, indirect channels. Examples are reactions to your software on Twitter and the usage of features in your application. Finally, this chapter will introduce hypothesis-driven development, an approach to software development practiced by Microsoft.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Understanding continuous feedback
• Asking for feedback
• Gathering indirect feedback
• Implementing hypothesis-driven development