When we launched our new dashboard, we thought it was a game-changer—until users stopped using it. Complaints rolled in: features were hard to find, workflows were clunky, and key tools were buried. Instead of guessing, we asked users one simple question: "What’s your biggest challenge using this system?" Their feedback was clear. We streamlined navigation, simplified processes, and highlighted key features. Within weeks, adoption improved, and frustrations faded. The lesson? You can’t build a great system in a vacuum—real user feedback isn’t optional; it’s essential.

You are building for humans and even for machines; you must create data collection touchpoints for people to give their unfiltered feedback. However, collecting the feedback is not the most important task. The most important and critical task is to make it regular and ensure the feedback is thoroughly analyzed and changes to improve the system are implemented on time to avoid frustration and churn from the usage of the system.

It is best to build an automated way of collecting user interactions into the user experience. Where are they stuck or struggling? Which tasks produce errors? Which tasks result in a successful outcome vs. not? This eliminates reliance on survey response rates, biases and say-do gap. This type of real time signaling can feed straight into decision making systems and create alerts to mitigate the product or service, instead of waiting for complaints. It becomes easier to justify the business case for enhancements and development and improve the effectiveness of systems and user experience by removing the points of pain.

Recently, We've adopted Clarity from Microsoft. It gives all records about the user experience and has great built-in tools for awesome insights. I wish I had discovered this tool sooner.