Positive Feedback Loop

Today’s lecture stirred up my curiosity about the importance of reviews when launching a new business, and specifically a subscription wine service. AirBnB is great example of a company that uses customer reviews and creates what Chip Conley describes as a positive feedback loop. According to Chip, early on in the company, one key to their success was the decision to make it mandatory for guests to review their experiences. Reviews have both quantitative and qualitative metrics and this data helps AirBnB create better experiences for guests and helps the company iterate upon any weaknesses early on.

Ultimately there are many other aspects of a business that needs to be spot on. HBR distills the key to success when starting a company as the following:

• The founding team
• The core values
• Where the company is located
• The initial investors (and their terms)

But upon the success of all-of-the-above, I believe that the flexibility of the initial product (subject to reviews and feedback) could be essential to having great outcomes.

Sources:

https://hbr.org/2012/05/four-things-to-get-right-when

https://skift.com/2016/09/29/this-is-what-hotels-can-learn-from-airbnb-and-vice-versa/