{"id":15447,"date":"2016-01-11T12:12:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T12:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?p=15447"},"modified":"2019-06-17T10:44:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T10:44:22","slug":"what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/","title":{"rendered":"What Customers Can and Can’t Do for Product Managers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The customer is always right.<\/p>\n

Ah, the age-old saying that many customer service-driven organizations try to live by. \u00a0There certainly are a lot of companies that take this saying seriously. \u00a0Some live by it, such as Nordstrom who famously allowed a customer to return a tire back to them even though they don’t actually sell tires (well, at least that’s how the legend goes<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But what about for product managers? \u00a0Does the customer really<\/em> know what’s best?<\/p>\n

While it’s true that not staying in touch with your customers and end users is a giant mistake, there are ways to listen to customers — and then there are ways that customers can lead you astray. \u00a0Here are a few things that your customers can (should) do for you, and several customer traps that you don’t want to find yourself in as a product person.<\/p>\n

Your Customers Should…<\/p>\n

Be on your speed dial: \u00a0<\/strong>If you’re not constantly talking to customers, there’s a problem.\u00a0 It’s critical for every product manager or VP to be in touch with customers every day, really. \u00a0Yes, I know that standups, roadmap meetings, and executive sessions can get in the way. \u00a0It doesn’t matter. \u00a0With chat and webconferencing tools, there really isn’t an excuse that you couldn’t have several customer conversations in a week. \u00a0I’m sure your Customer Success team would love if you hopped on to take calls for a couple of hours one day. \u00a0The point is, you can be in close contact with customers if you made an effort. \u00a0And it will really help you ensure you never really lose empathy for the customer.<\/p>\n

Be able to communicate their biggest pains:<\/strong>\u00a0 Whether you’re a part of a high growth startup team or a larger organization, it’s likely that your company started because at one point, there was a pain so deep that your customers had that your founders decided it was time that a solution existed for them. \u00a0While your company may have changed significantly since then, the fact still remains that your company exists because it aims to solve a pain for the customer — one that they simply can’t live with any longer. \u00a0But what is that pain today? \u00a0How has it changed? \u00a0Are new pains more important? \u00a0If you can’t answer these questions about your key customers, it’s time to get back in front of them.<\/p>\n

Open up their wallets: \u00a0<\/strong>If you’ve solved a real pain for them that they can no longer live with, customers should pay you to alleviate it… always. \u00a0When you’re launching a new product, you might find yourself in a trap of wanting to give your product away for free… just for the first few customers. \u00a0Don’t. \u00a0Not even if they’re an “early adopter.” \u00a0When a customer doesn’t pay for a product, you really don’t know if your product is solving a problem for them. \u00a0The feedback they give you could be skewed (because hey, who complains about a free product?) — and you won’t get a sense of just how valuable your product is. \u00a0So sell it. \u00a0Even in the beginning. \u00a0Even to the first customer.<\/p>\n

Despite all of these things that your customers should do for you, there are a couple of\u00a0things that they simply can’t do for you:<\/p>\n

Tell you what\u00a0products to make:<\/strong>\u00a0 Remember, this is always your<\/em> job. \u00a0The customer isn’t responsible for telling you what to do. \u00a0Most customers don’t even have time for dreaming up the best new product idea (and you probably wouldn’t want them to). \u00a0Let them communicate their problems to you — and you<\/em> solve that problem with your products.<\/p>\n

Speak for everyone:<\/strong>\u00a0 One customer is just that: \u00a0one customer. \u00a0We all might have our favorites — that person who’s always willing to take your call or allow you to visit them to get good intel. \u00a0That’s great. \u00a0Just make sure that you realize that they’re representing themselves and their unique situation. \u00a0It’s critical to build relationships with all sorts of different customers in order to get the diverse perspective you need.<\/p>\n

The fact is, customers\u00a0should be important to every product manager. \u00a0If anything else, you should realize that it’s the customers and their pains for which your organization and job actually exists. \u00a0So build great relationships with them. \u00a0Just remember — they can’t do everything<\/em> for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The customer is always right. Ah, the age-old saying that many customer service-driven organizations try to live by. \u00a0There certainly are a lot of companies that take this saying seriously. \u00a0Some live by it, such as Nordstrom who famously allowed a customer to return a tire back to them even though they don’t actually sell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Customers Can and Can't Do for Product Managers - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Customers Can and Can't Do for Product Managers - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The customer is always right. Ah, the age-old saying that many customer service-driven organizations try to live by. \u00a0There certainly are a lot of companies that take this saying seriously. \u00a0Some live by it, such as Nordstrom who famously allowed a customer to return a tire back to them even though they don’t actually sell […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/productcollective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-11T12:12:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-17T10:44:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-Shot-2016-01-13-at-12.25.12-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"797\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"526\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Belsito\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Belsito\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/\",\"name\":\"What Customers Can and Can't Do for Product Managers - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-Shot-2016-01-13-at-12.25.12-PM.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-11T12:12:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-17T10:44:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/24d4c079e1398ba4f15e5f82e613f5ff\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-Shot-2016-01-13-at-12.25.12-PM.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-Shot-2016-01-13-at-12.25.12-PM.png\",\"width\":797,\"height\":526},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/what-customers-can-and-cant-do-for-product-managers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Customers Can and Can’t Do for Product Managers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\",\"name\":\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"description\":\"For people who build, launch and scale world-class software products.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/24d4c079e1398ba4f15e5f82e613f5ff\",\"name\":\"Mike Belsito\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mikebelsito-12-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mikebelsito-12-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Mike Belsito\"},\"description\":\"Mike Belsito is a startup product and business developer who loves creating something from nothing. 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