What it is
Systematic analysis of existing feedback (tickets, chats, reviews, NPS and CSAT comments, call notes), coded into themes with a count of how often each appears. It surfaces recurring pain points in customers' words, but over-represents people who choose to contact you.
Why use it
Teams collect feedback they rarely analyze together. Structured analysis turns scattered comments into evidence of recurring problems, cheaply compared with primary studies.
Use this when
- Feedback channels exist but nobody analyzes them together
- You need to decide where to focus before recruiting
- Support or sales report undocumented recurring complaints
- A launched product needs a read on what users say is wrong
You may not need this when
- The product is new, with little feedback
- Feedback is too small or narrow to show patterns
- The question is about people who do not contact support, such as non-users
Dependencies — what you need
- Access to feedback sources, with permission to use them
- A coding scheme, refined as themes emerge
- A plan to protect personal data, including before using AI tools
People involved
- Design
- Research
- Product
- Customer Success / Support
- Analytics
Typical outputs
- Themes with comment counts (the sample, not all users) and quotes
- Each source's coverage and likely bias
- Recurring problems ranked by frequency and apparent severity
- Questions for interviews, surveys, or analytics
Template
Feedback Analysis template
A fill-in structure for running this method: what to prepare, what to do, what to record, and how to read the result.
How AI can help
AI as augmentation — not replacement
- Propose initial themes from a sample, for a person to refine and apply
- Help draft a coding guide with definitions and examples
- Check cleaned comments for missed personal data, for a person to confirm
- Draft a themes and caveats summary, with quotes checked against the source
AI prompt
A prompt for any AI assistant. It works only from material you paste in, keeps assumptions apart from findings, and leaves the decisions to you.