My 9-Year-Old's Brutal Product Review

My 9-year-old daughter just filed the most honest bug report I've ever received.

So Dahlia's been learning Greek, and I may have... forced her to try our new Langua call mode instead of her usual app.

This feature lets you have real phone-like conversations with AI tutors. You can interrupt, ask questions, have natural back-and-forth. Not like those rigid apps where you just repeat phrases.

She's mid-conversation with our AI tutor when she turns to me:

"Dad, this AI is so impatient. It keeps cutting me off when I'm trying to think of the Greek word. And it's not even fixing my pronunciation!"

I'm sitting there thinking we just launched this feature, I personally love it, and my daughter destroyed it in thirty seconds.

My first instinct? "Well actually, Dahlia, the AI is designed to maintain conversation flow..."

But then I stopped.

Because she was absolutely right.

We'd optimized for what felt like natural conversation timing, but missed that beginners need processing time. We focused so much on flow that we deprioritized correction feedback.

The most valuable product feedback often comes from people we least expect.

They ask the simple question: "Why does this work this way?"

Those aren't naive observations. They're unfiltered insights from fresh eyes. And my daughter? She's the ultimate fresh eyes - no bias, no politeness filter, just pure user experience truth.

We're already adjusting the AI's patience thresholds and improving pronunciation correction.

But the real lesson isn't about our product. It's about how we receive feedback.

The feedback that makes us defensive is often the feedback we need most. Whether it's from an anonymous user on Reddit, your beta users, or your 9-year-old who just wants to learn Greek.

Sometimes the best QA team is sitting right at your kitchen table.

Who in your circle is giving you unfiltered feedback that you might be dismissing?

Originally posted on LinkedIn on June 23, 2025