Don’t listen to the ‘Voice of the customer’

Hello Product Leaders!

This title might come as a surprise: "Voice of the customer" is often considered a fundamental aspect of a product manager’s and leader's role.

However, what I see in reality is that some clients and PMs in my team took it too “literally”.

Product managers often rush and make poor judgments due to pressure from large customers and senior leadership. They tend to prioritize conventional or ‘easy decisions’ and deliver suboptimal outcomes.

So let’s dive in.

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The Path of Least Resistance Paradox

Avoidance behavior is a concept that explains how humans make easy decisions out of fear. It refers to choosing the easiest path or avoiding challenging situations to escape discomfort, anxiety, or fear.

However, this behavior limits product leaders’ growth and misses opportunities for making the right product decisions.

1- Reframing the Voice of Customer

Reality 1 - Individual vs collective base

This statement might come as a surprise: "Voice of the customer" is often considered a fundamental aspect of a product leader's role.

It's because what a product leader brings into the company isn't only the voice of individual customers but rather the collective voice of the market. This distinction is significant.

In theory (although I'll contradict myself shortly), a product leader shouldn't prioritize any single customer's feedback but rather possess a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs and preferences of potential customers.

Their focus should be on creating products that cater to a broad customer base, not just one individual and matching their North Star.

What I like to ask my team:

What is the common denominator or pattern across all users you spoke to? If you know the answer, implement that.

However, as product leaders, we frequently get feedback from unique individual customers. While the nature and frequency may vary between different contexts, product leaders regularly engage with specific customers (or should be doing so!).

Full disclosure: I didn't invent this differentiation myself. It was the guidance I received from industry experts during a product leader training I attended a few years ago.

And naturally, it's crucial to pay attention to their input.

Why?

• Listening to customers can provide insights into broader preferences, if you acknowledge the difference.

• Certain customers are crucial to the company's success, requiring efforts to meet their requirements, despite their unique needs. This is risky!

Reality 2 - Big vs small

Big corporations can bring in a lot of revenue, but they often hinder product innovation. They tend to push for building features that are only useful to them because of their outdated legacy architecture. This slows down your innovation, while agile competitive startups quickly gain ground.

The strategy here is to focus on winning over enterprise customers by just meeting their needs. After that, prioritize listening to smaller customers for fresh and innovative ideas.

Reality 3 - Organizational culture

Some of you or some companies interpret the subject of this content too literally, believing that product managers shouldn't directly engage with customers at all. They rely on Sales, CSM or strategy to relay customer feedback to product managers.

We all hate it! I know…

Although this approach has its benefits, it is important to understand that direct interactions between product people and customers are crucial. These interactions help in identifying the actual problems and making the right decisions to have the greatest impact on users.

2- How to apply it?

So, moving forward when working with a customer to understand their needs and update product plans accordingly, ask yourself these questions:

• Are they representative of other customers? If so, how many?

• Does the issue they raise reflect challenges experienced by other customers? This answer might differ from the previous one. If yes, how many?

• Is this customer so significant that, even if the answers to the previous questions are "No," we should prioritize keeping them happy?

• Important again, watch those big customers that can influence your senior executives and challenge your execs on this…

Having answers to these questions significantly streamlines prioritization and planning.

These answers also hold strategic importance in ensuring the problems addressed align with the company's overall strategy.

Once you've implemented the advice above, I'd love to hear back from you. Share the impact it had on your decisions.

Key Takeaways - When to use it?

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