As PMs, our brains are all the time so filled with various things that we have to be taught and keep on prime of. Properly, right here’s another essential thought, I’m going to ask you to slot in and never neglect:
You might be tempted to suppose that YOU are your buyer. However you aren’t. You might be the voice of the shopper, that’s one thing very completely different. The earlier that you just be taught this the higher. It’ll keep away from a number of grief for you, and effectively to your prospects.
On this article, we’ll discuss why feeling like you might be your buyer and making selections primarily based on that is a matter. We’ll additionally talk about methods that will help you step away from this fallacy.
Desk of contents
Why it’s tempting to suppose that you’re your buyer
I get it, consider me, I do.
If you’re the shopper, then your job is a lot simpler! The laborious activity of constructing a roadmap is effectively, not laborious. You realize precisely what must be constructed, as your self. When help points are available, it’s straightforward to prioritize which of them you might want to deal with. You simply should ask your self “does this have an effect on me?”
Extra instances than not, the reply might be no and you might be executed. Life is straightforward, proper?
Person expertise? That’s additionally a straightforward one. You realize the type of expertise you want, so the staff simply must construct that. If you’re the shopper, you might be all the time the hero. Proper?
Is there an issue?
I’m being slightly excessive for impact, however the actuality is that many product individuals do suppose this manner, together with at among the largest tech corporations on the planet. Sure, it’s a downside.
In the event you see your self because the buyer, then you’ll make selections primarily based on what you deem as needed or helpful. The issue is that your prospects could not agree. You’ll seemingly spend money on the flawed issues — issues your prospects don’t want.
Don’t be fooled by the truth that this technique labored for a time. You might effectively have sufficient of a good sense for an MVP, however that can change rapidly. Although oftentimes, even this technique doesn’t work. As extra prospects onboard your product, particularly paying prospects, their wants will differ. In the event you hold down the trail of simply constructing what you suppose is greatest, you’ll seemingly pay a heavy worth that might be very expensive to undo.
A number of merchandise lay on the backside of the failure ocean attributable to this strategy.
A sunken ship
I labored at Microsoft on a really massive mission that was set to revolutionize cloud computing. It was a basic case of an answer on the lookout for a buyer. For a number of years, the product growth was pushed by a perception from management that this was proper for the market.
After about 18 months of growth, the corporate began to speak to potential prospects and flew a bunch (as in 50–100) in for a personal occasion. After displaying the product, the response was not what the corporate had hoped to obtain. Clients didn’t get why this product was needed and felt the corporate was investing in one thing that was simply not an issue they cared about. It was an enormous impolite awakening.
Afterwards, I talked to one in all our execs concerning the suggestions. He mentioned, “these are the flawed prospects, they aren’t the suitable viewers.” I used to be actually shocked at this response. I mentioned, “if they aren’t the suitable prospects, then why are we assembly with them within the first place?” Crickets.
Flash ahead, the mission bought utterly canceled. Tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} down the drain.
All of this might have been averted had extra power been spent studying what prospects actually needed and validating that want.
Affirmation bias
“I do know what they need and the info helps it!”
This can be a frequent justification for you being the shopper. Right here’s the factor, our brains are tough. Once we strongly consider one thing is true, we are able to and do interpret the info in a method that helps these beliefs. That’s precisely what affirmation bias is all about.
Within the earlier instance I discussed, I’m fairly assured this performed a giant half. The staff had executed the analysis, however the evaluation was skewed primarily based on the need they needed to ship a selected sort of resolution. I’ve personally additionally been affected by this within the efforts I’ve led. It’s one thing product managers all have to be very cautious of.
The best way to be the voice of the shopper
Being the voice of the shopper means that you’re their consultant. You’ll advocate for his or her considerations and make it possible for the product will adequately deal with their wants. You want to have the ability to compartmentalize your personal wishes and beliefs concerning the product in favor of what your prospects have expressed they want.
To characterize your prospects, you first want to listen to and perceive them. I can’t over-emphasize how essential it’s so that you can make investments your time right here.
There are various completely different qualitative and quantitative methods to listen to your prospects, listed below are a couple of which have yielded essentially the most success for me:
Speak to prospects
There isn’t any alternative for having the ability to discuss straight together with your prospects. I consider that product managers needs to be speaking to their prospects at the very least weekly, if not every day. I’ve discovered that they’re prepared to speak about merchandise particularly in the event that they know that their sharing may also help form the product. This may be by means of many various mediums corresponding to calls, messaging, on-line conferences, or in particular person at occasions.
When talking with prospects, strive laborious to observe speaking much less and listening extra. Channel curiosity and search to know what issues they’re attempting to realize, how your product suits in, and their expertise. Validate whether or not or not your assumptions are true. Listening right here is so essential as a result of prospects like to be heard and really feel valued when listened to.
Along with studying about their why, listening will enable you to to uncover different areas to probe additional to achieve extra understanding, or to uncover alternatives.
Speak to your gross sales, buyer success, and help groups
Embrace developer advocates if that’s related to your group. These groups might be a superb proxy for what your prospects are saying. They will inform you about the important thing issues that your prospects face, each from the standpoint of the capabilities and the expertise.
Gross sales (together with gross sales engineers and resolution architects) can inform you of the issues prospects love and the key gaps that stand in the best way of closing offers. Buyer success offers you nice perception into the issues prospects face as they attempt to onboard the product. Assist may also help you see the place individuals are generally getting caught and the workarounds.
For a platform product, developer advocates might be an incredible useful resource for understanding what’s holding devs again from adopting or the place they’re operating into bother.
Ship surveys
Surveys might be an effective way to gather knowledge and study patterns of utilization throughout your completely different buyer segments. With surveys, much less is much more. Attempt to distill down your inquiries to 10 questions or much less, as knowledge reveals that prospects might be extra more likely to reply.
As soon as I see the survey outcomes, I’ll then select some prospects to speak to so I can additional perceive their solutions and attempt to keep away from drawing the flawed conclusions.
Examine your analytics
Product analytics are an incredible device to know how prospects are utilizing your product. In the event you don’t have product analytics, it’s best to! You’ll be taught which options are getting essentially the most and least utilization, how customers circulate by means of the product, and the place they get caught. You might be actually shocked at what you be taught and uncover that prospects are utilizing the product in methods you didn’t think about.
Just like surveys, it is very important comply with up straight with prospects to know why you’re seeing what you’re seeing.
Learn social media, blogs, and boards
These might be wonderful assets for studying about your product expertise. Boards particularly might be goldmines for the place individuals are getting caught. One warning right here is that these assets can have a excessive signal-to-noise ratio. It could initially be overwhelming navigating to seek out the sign. Over time and with observe, this will get simpler and simpler.
Have a look at opponents
Don’t be afraid to have a look at your opponents. This can enable you to perceive each their strengths and weaknesses. You might be taught concerning the capabilities of their merchandise, which might be helpful so as to add to yours. You might also study ache factors their prospects are experiencing, which you’ll be able to acquire a aggressive edge on and even win over a few of their prospects in the event you deal with them
Distilling and synthesizing knowledge
You’ve spent the mandatory time gathering knowledge and you’ll have collected a big quantity. How will you use it? It’s worthwhile to distill it down and synthesize it. Meaning aggregating frequent themes from all of your sources and summarizing what you might be seeing and why. This can be a talent that can take time to achieve mastery, however it’s vital. You’ll seemingly get a number of pushback in the event you come to your leaders with a bunch of numbers and with out an evidence of the WHY.
It’s non-trivial, how will you match it?
As you’ll be able to see, this can be a non-trivial quantity of labor. How do you match this in with the unending barrage of day-to-day and last-minute duties? Prioritization.
First, you must discover a method. You might have to place issues decrease on the precedence stack to make room. Second, the work is ongoing. It’s not such as you simply sit for a day and are executed — no, it’s regularly integrating these habits into every thing else.
It may be two hours at some point, half-hour one other, and 5 on the third. So long as you might be doing one thing, you will note a profit, do the most effective you’ll be able to. Making use of these practices of information gathering, distilling, and synthesis will enable you to to adequately characterize the voice of the shopper and be sure that the product is constructed to fulfill their wants. Your prospects deserve that!
You aren’t your buyer, however you might be their voice
In abstract, it’s problematic no matter how engaging it might appear, so that you can assume you might be your buyer. Study your prospects, grow to be their voice, and echo their wants.
One nice ebook that I extremely suggest is Lean Buyer Growth by Cindy Alvarez. In it, you’ll be taught a complete strategy to partaking with and understanding your prospects’ wants and methods to contain them in product growth.
Executed proper, this can have an enormously optimistic impact on how your product does out there.
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