Voice of the customer

VOC collection plan

VOC collection plan is licensed CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com).

1 · What it is

What it is

Every other VOC artifact in this catalogue works from evidence that already exists — the collection plan is what makes sure that evidence keeps showing up. State what you want VOC evidence to eventually answer, and a real plan gets drafted: which method (interviews, gemba sessions, ticket tagging, surveys), who owns it, how often it happens, and exactly how its output reaches the evidence log. Any goal with no real activity behind it yet is named directly, not silently left uncovered.

2 · When to use it

When to use it — and when not to

Use it when

You want VOC collection to be a standing practice, not a one-time push before a single interview guide gets used once and forgotten.
You have real questions you want evidence to eventually answer and want to know exactly what's keeping the evidence log fed for each one.
You want to know honestly which of your goals have no real collection activity behind them yet.

Not when

You just want to run one interview — that's the interview guide directly, no standing plan needed.
You don't have any real goals yet, just a general sense you should 'do more VOC' — sharpen the goals first, or the plan will be as vague as the goals.
The plan would just restate 'talk to customers more' as every activity — that's not concrete enough to actually keep evidence flowing; push for a real method and cadence.

3 · How to fill it in

How to fill it in

Scope: What population or customer journey does this collection plan cover?
Goals: What do you want VOC evidence to eventually answer? A real collection activity gets drafted for each one where a concrete method genuinely fits.
Collection activities: Drafted from your goals — method, owner, cadence, and exactly how the output reaches the evidence log. Reassign an activity's linked goal or edit any field directly.
Coverage: Computed for you: total goals and activities, and which goals still have no real collection activity — nothing to enter here.
Narrative: Drafted from the plan and any coverage gaps — which goals are well-covered, which still need a real activity.

4 · What good looks like

What good looks like

The example below plans standing collection for four goals using the exact instruments built elsewhere in this catalogue — customer interviews, support ticket tagging, and a gemba protocol — and honestly leaves the fourth goal (why enterprise deals stall) with no activity yet, naming the win-loss interview guide as the natural next step rather than forcing a weak activity onto it.

Same example, as a downloadable xlsx workbook.

Download .xlsx

VOC collection plan

H1 2026 VOC collection plan

Dana Whitfield, Product Lead · 2026-01-15

Team: Marcus Lee, Support, Priya Nair, Customer Success · Sponsor: Alex Romero, VP Product

Scope

Covers new and existing customers across all segments for the first half of 2026 — the standing collection activities that keep the VOC evidence log fed, not a one-time research push.

Goals

Understand why onboarding friction happens
Understand why pricing confusion happens
Understand what's driving early support ticket spikes
Understand why enterprise deals stall in negotiationNo activity yet

Collection activities

Method	Linked goal	Owner	Cadence	Evidence flow
Customer interviews (customer interview guide)	Understand why onboarding friction happens	Dana Whitfield	Monthly — 3 to 5 customers, 30 to 60 days into their contract	Interviewer logs quotes into the VOC evidence log within 48 hours of each interview.
Support ticket tagging	Understand why pricing confusion happens	Marcus Lee	Ongoing — tagged as tickets come in, reviewed weekly	Support tags tickets with a 'pricing confusion' label; Marcus pulls tagged tickets into the evidence log every Friday.
Gemba sessions (gemba interview protocol)	Understand what's driving early support ticket spikes	Marcus Lee	Quarterly — one full support shift observed	Observations logged the same day, source type 'gemba'.

Coverage

Goals

Activities

No collection activity yet: Understand why enterprise deals stall in negotiation

Narrative

Three of the four goals have a real, standing collection activity behind them — onboarding friction and pricing confusion both have monthly or ongoing sources already in motion, and the support gemba session adds a direct-observation channel quarterly. The fourth goal, enterprise deals stalling in negotiation, has no activity yet — that's a real gap, not an oversight, and the natural next step given the win-loss interview guide already exists for exactly this kind of question.

5 · Common mistakes

Common mistakes

Writing an activity that's really just 'gather more feedback' restated.
A real method with a real cadence and a real evidence-flow step is what actually keeps the evidence log fed — a vague activity produces nothing to log.
Treating a coverage gap (a goal with no activity) as good enough to ship.
A goal with no real collection activity behind it is still just a question, not a plan to answer it — the whole point of this tool is surfacing that gap honestly.
Building the plan once and never revisiting it as goals change.
A collection plan is a standing practice, not a one-time document — re-run it as new goals emerge or old ones get answered, the same way any other artifact in this catalogue gets re-run when the underlying situation changes.

6 · What it connects to

What it connects to

upstream

downstream

Customer interview guide
An activity that names 'customer interviews' as its method is exactly what the interview guide exists to support — build the actual guide once the plan names the need for it.
VOC evidence log
Every activity's 'evidence flow' field describes exactly how its output should land in the evidence log — the plan and the log are meant to work together continuously, not as separate one-off exercises.

7 · Where AI helps

Where AI helps

Judgement — stays yours

Deciding whether a drafted activity's cadence is realistic given real team capacity
Deciding which coverage gap to close first

Analysis — AI helps

Drafting a real method, cadence, and evidence-flow step from a stated goal
Drafting the narrative from the plan and any coverage gaps

Drudgery — automated

Counting goals and activities
Identifying which goals still have no collection activity
Exporting to xlsx in the house format

9 · Rate this kata