Feedback
River
The Middle Stream of Insight
Raw Aggregation
The “Wild” River
Feedback flows in from every store and channel, but without classification, it remains noise. It is too much information for any one person to process.
Status: Overwhelming.
Classified Flow
The Organized Hub
Feedback is tagged by source, urgency, and customer segment (e.g., Fortune 100 vs. Free Trial). It is now ready for targeted distribution.
Status: Actionable Intelligence.
The Second Step of the 3Cs
While many organizations consider a central repository of feedback to be the end goal, it is actually only the second step of a three-part process: Collect, Classify, and Communicate. The Feedback River is where raw data from various Tributaries is gathered in aggregate—often in tools like Slack or email digests—to be viewed as a whole.
Taming the Information Flood
An unmanaged feedback river can be an overwhelming source of information. Without classification, the data becomes irrelevant to the very people who need it most. To optimize the river, you must tag the water: Is this external feedback? Is it about a specific product? Is it from a high-stakes enterprise customer? Classification turns a “wild” river into a navigable resource.
Connecting to the Lake
Many organizations stop at the river stage, leaving employees to “fish” for what they need. However, the most effective systems ensure the river leads to Feedback Lakes—specialized bodies of data routed to specific teams like Product, Sales, or Marketing. The river is the transit point; the lake is the destination.
Learn more about building Organizational Feedback Systems.