The Fast-Feedback Flywheel
Fix every piece of user feedback within minutes so people feel heard and give you even more.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
Most product feedback disappears into a black hole, so users stop giving it. Boris's counter-move: respond to feedback as fast as humanly possible — within minutes — so users feel heard, which motivates them to contribute more. That firehose of feedback then becomes the single best signal for what to build, and AI now does much of the fixing.
Origin
Boris Cherny's practice from the earliest days of Claude Code at Anthropic, sustained via an internal feedback channel.
Core principles
- 01When feedback vanishes into a black hole, people stop giving it
- 02Fixing feedback within minutes makes users feel heard and encourages more
- 03A high-volume feedback firehose is the best signal for what to build next
- 04AI lets one person fix and ship feedback in minutes, keeping the loop fast at scale
- 05Engaging directly with users (e.g. on Twitter/X) surfaces bugs and feature requests you'd otherwise miss
How to run it
- 1
Create a single feedback firehose
Set up one channel where all user feedback lands — Anthropic has had an internal Claude Code feedback channel since 2024.
- 2
Fix each item as fast as possible
When feedback arrives, address it within a minute or a few minutes — as fast as you possibly can.
Pro tip Speed here is a signal to users, not just a metric — it proves you're listening.
Watch out Slow or silent handling teaches users their input is pointless and dries up the feedback stream.
- 3
Let the fast response compound
Because users feel heard, they contribute more feedback, which becomes your richest source of what to build.
- 4
Use AI to sustain the pace
Point the agent at the feedback channel to triage and draft fixes so one person can keep the loop fast even as volume grows.
Pro tip Boris now points Claude at the feedback channel and it proposes PRs; he reviews and ships.
In the wild
Since first releasing Claude Code internally in 2024, Anthropic ran a channel that was a firehose of feedback. Early on Boris fixed every single item as fast as he could — within a minute or five. Now he points Claude at the channel and it surfaces a few things it can do and puts up PRs.
→ The fast loop kept users giving feedback, which became the single best signal for improving the product.
On a coding vacation in Europe, Boris got bored, opened Twitter, introduced himself and asked people for bugs and feedback. Because he could hand a bug to Claude and fix it within minutes given a good description, users were surprised by the pace.
→ Direct engagement plus near-instant fixes generated goodwill and a steady stream of actionable bug and feature reports.
Common mistakes
Letting feedback vanish into a black hole
When users give feedback and hear nothing back, they conclude it's pointless and stop contributing, cutting off your best product signal.
Batching feedback for later
Delaying fixes breaks the 'feel heard' effect that drives the flywheel; the value comes specifically from the speed of the response.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and product leads of early or fast-moving products who can respond to users personally and quickly
Not ideal for
Large orgs with heavy release processes where minute-level fixes to user feedback aren't feasible
From the transcript
“anytime that someone sends feedback, I would just go in and I would fix every single thing as fast as I possibly could.”
“if you make people feel heard, then they want to contribute and they want to help make the thing better.”
From the episode
Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved
Boris Cherny