As savvy Product people, we are eager to talk to customers, but it’s hard. Working with Sales or Support to identify good candidates, sending emails, following up to schedule time, writing a script, collecting and analyzing the data. It’s a lot of work. How can you fit all of that into your week? A few suggestions from teams that are making it happen:
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Don’t wait until you have a research question. Build your pipeline continuously and have time for customer interviews (and time for setting them up) built into every week.
Tell your colleagues in Sales and Support who you want to talk with and give them a calendar link to share with customers who fit your needs (or who just want to give input on your product).
Have a set of standard questions at the ready that help you understand your customers better. Use them before you ask them about your product or the feature you are working on. You’ll always have something to talk about if you start with them.
Everyone on the team should share notes in a central location like Google Docs, a shared drive, or one of the many specialized product tools.
If this still sounds like a lot, lobby for a Product Ops hire on your team to help put these processes into place and support them over time.
Any other tips?
Paris and Madrid
I'll be speaking at the awesome conference La Product Conf. Paris, May 24 on “Stakeholder Management: The Most Important Skill Nobody Teaches.” Madrid, May 26 on “Roadmaps are Dead! Long live Roadmaps!” Coming? Ping me.