The feedback loop

A friend of mine made an interesting observation the other day. He said that before he learnt how to drive a car, he thought that it must be incredibly hard to drive it. He always thought that the number of variables you would have to keep in the head while driving a car should probably make it possible only for the smartest of the mere mortals to drive it. His biggest surprise was when his (illiterate) cook took the car for a spin and even though she was driving it the first time, it did not take her a big leap compared to her Hero Puch.

I kept on thinking about this observation when I realized that it is the feedback loop which makes it so easy to drive a car. Without boring you with a control theory lecture, simply speaking, the driver in real time adjusts the input based on perceived output. So, when the driver is turning towards left, if he turns the steering wheel too far left, he sees it, and, immediately adjusts the input. If he has to slow down, he can either break hard or slow depending on how fast he is going and how far the hurdle is. Also, we as human beings are very good at learning and adapting to a behavior. So, after a few times, we just know the right amount of pressure to apply to the breaks. Remember, it feels a little different if you try your hands at a different make than the usual car you drive? Its exactly because we use our learnings rather than the feedback once we get accustomed to a situation.

Now just imagine,

• If you had a real time feedback when learning something new, how much less time it would take you to learn it.
• If you are a first time entrepreneur, and you have a management dashboard which can in real time tell you how you are performing, then your chances of success are that much better.
• If your UI had a real time feedback mechanism, how much easier it would be for you to dictate how the user is performing

Rewards are also a control mechanism, but this post is not about rewards.

Linkedin does a good job in terms of giving a real time feedback when you build a profile with a profile completeness bar. Build something in your product and you can have a great engagement model for your customers.