We need more 2 star reviews

Every two weeks my cofounder and I do a meeting we call "The Good Talk." The rule for this meeting is that we have to give each other constructive feedback or else we have to just... stare at each other. Awkwardly. It's the most useful meeting because we have to voice what's really bugging us.

I loved launching on Product Hunt a couple weeks ago. And I won't deny that it was gratifying to see a bunch of five star reviews come in after a year of building. But people, let's be honest--we're a brand new product and there are LOTS of ways we need to improve. (We just launched an internal dogfood project where everyone on our team is using Splotch for a personal use case and listing their five biggest frustrations--we have them too!)

Honest frustrations voiced by people who are trying to get something done in the product are gold. I think this is the single biggest value add (and missed opportunity) that this community of founders can give each other.

A couple of ideas:

• Challenges: What if PH introduced a something that wasn't as final and scary as a "review" but instead called them "challenges"? The person raising the challenge could describe what they need. The team could accept or respond to meet the challenge and give a timeframe. The challenger could report back.

• Trades: If I can envision a real-life use case for your product, and you could see one for mine, let's trade! (This could also be productized with matches on PH.)

• Good, bad and ugly: Reviews could contain fields that ask the reviewer what needs to be improved--and reward reviewers for leaving this kind of feedback. (Founders want it! Could be private too if they prefer.)

As my public speaking coach always says after a session: feedback is a gift. Let's start giving it to each other in a more robust, useful way!