3 true facts about how Customer Feedback affects Product Leadership
Incorporating customer feedback in product leadership is a strategy that Max Eskell, Head of Products at Monese (former Zopa), has mastered in his vast experience in multiple industries. The expert and guest mentor of ScaleUp Academy led an online Talk and Q&A about these topics and shared essential tips when using feedback from customers to improve products quality and leadership.
The Customer Is Always Right?
Getting feedback from customers is about understanding what customers value, not what they say they want. From acknowledging the problems in getting the right feedback to learning the ropes of handling the whole process. Identify what the customer wants. The truth is, customers don’t know what they want. So, reframe the problem into one where you find the frustrations and delight when customers are trying to get something done.
For Max Eskell the number one problem in customer feedback is that people in user tests and surveys often create the answer they think you want or need to know, rather than speak from experience about what they have actually done in the past. If you ask customers to talk through their past experience, you are more likely to uncover the true frustration and delight they faced.
Find the right customers and you will find the right product
What customers say is different from what they do. Different customer will have conflicting feedback. Good customer segmentation, based on ‘jobs to be done’ will allow you to understand and target the right customer so you can build what really matters to them, and test the right people in the right way.
Creating an MVP product is the work of a Relay Team
Apply the analogy of the Jamaican relay team when creating an MVP product. The way you can make this work is to think about the different teams involved and think about the whole system, ‘or relay race’. Use minimal structure and process to make sure everyone knows that they are on the team, why they are there, what the goal is and how to work together.
In conclusion
Scaling companies will face different problems at different times. What our featured companies, mentors and resource speakers went through to overcome challenges may also be the same as what you experience in your company. Although needs and situations differ from one company to another, the ability to manage expectations based from other companies’ experience in the process of scaling, may all together bring forth success in your company as you scale.
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