How to Use Feedback Without Losing Focus
A sobering moment for Seir Hill
When we first launched Seir Hill Mashville, our non-alcoholic whiskey, I was equal parts exhilarated and anxious. Nine months of focused work went into that product. I collaborated with consultants, flavor houses, and sommeliers to create something that felt like real whiskey without the alcohol.
By the time we started shipping Mashville on a Wednesday, I felt proud, hopeful, and more than a little nervous.
By Friday night, reality arrived.
An email landed in my inbox. Our first customer review.
I opened it, expecting validation.
Instead, I read this:
“This stuff tastes like turpentine filtered through cat litter.”
That was the moment.
Turning a Bad Review Into a Useful One
I won’t pretend that review didn’t sting. Nine months of work distilled into a single one-star sentence has a way of making you question everything. The product. The process. Even the decision to start the business at all.
After sitting with it, though, two important lessons surfaced.
First, feedback matters more than comfort. Brutal honesty is still engagement. Indifference is far worse.
Second, taste is subjective. I remembered being seventeen and sneaking a sip of Maker’s Mark from my parents’ liquor cabinet. At the time, I would have described it in similarly unflattering terms. Whiskey is supposed to have punch, complexity, and edge. In a strange way, that review suggested we may have captured something authentic.
It wasn’t a compliment, but it was information.
Why Individual Reviews Don’t Matter as Much as Patterns
As more reviews came in, the spread was wide. Five-star praise on one end, the occasional one-star takedown on the other. Early on, I learned a critical lesson.
Reacting emotionally to individual reviews is a mistake.
The real value of feedback shows up in trends.
About six months in, a pattern emerged. Multiple reviews referenced a bubble gum note in Mashville’s flavor. The phrasing was different, but the observation was consistent. Some people liked it. Others didn’t.
We investigated internally and traced it back to a subtle banana note in the formulation. That note was intentional and rooted in real whiskey flavor profiles, but for a portion of customers, it read as bubble gum.
So we made a change. Quietly. We removed the banana note.
Once we did, the bubble gum comments disappeared.
That remains the only change we have ever made to the Mashville formula, and it happened because of repeated, consistent feedback, not because of one loud opinion.
Learning to Respect Critics Without Obeying Them
Taste is personal. You will never make a product everyone loves. That reality becomes clearer the moment real customers start talking back.
Here’s what experience taught me:
Don’t let extremes define you. Five-star praise can be just as misleading as one-star criticism.
Look for signals, not noise. Trends matter. Outliers don’t.
Appreciate engagement. Criticism still means someone cared enough to react.
The goal isn’t universal approval. The goal is clarity about who your product is for and whether it’s serving them well.
Validation Comes Later, If You’re Paying Attention
Fast forward to today and that approach has paid off. Our rum has won gold at the LA Spirits Awards three years in a row, beating much larger and better-funded brands.
That recognition felt good, but it wasn’t what shaped the company.
That first review did.
It forced us to separate ego from information and vanity from learning. It set the tone for how we listen to customers and how we make decisions.
What Founders Can Learn From Bad Reviews
If you’re building something and putting it into the world, reviews are inevitable. They’re not a referendum on you as a founder. They’re data.
A few principles worth remembering:
Zoom out and look for patterns.
Stay curious instead of defensive.
Know who your product is for and accept that it’s not for everyone.
Every review, good or bad, shapes the business you’re building. If you’re willing to listen the right way, even the harsh ones can move you forward.
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