Understanding Customer Expectations For New Products

While it can be easily believed that customers are the ultimate experts about their own needs, there are ways to gain insights and knowledge that customers may not be aware of or able to articulate directly. While customers are the ultimate source of truth about their needs, product managers can complement this knowledge by employing a combination of research, data analysis, and empathetic understanding to gain a more comprehensive understanding of customer needs and expectations. The goal is not to know more than customers but to use various tools and methods to gain insights that can lead to building better products and delivering exceptional user experiences. ➡️ User Research: Conducting thorough user research, such as interviews, surveys, and observational studies, can reveal underlying needs and pain points that customers may not have fully recognized or articulated. By learning from many users, we gain holistic insights and deeper insights into their motivations and behaviors. ➡️ Data Analysis: Analyzing user data, including behavioral data and usage patterns, can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and pain points. By identifying trends and patterns in the data, product managers can make informed decisions about what features or improvements are most likely to address customer needs effectively. ➡️ Contextual Inquiry: Observing customers in their real-life environment while using the product can uncover valuable insights into their needs and challenges. Contextual inquiry helps product managers understand the context in which customers use the product and how it fits into their daily lives. ➡️ Competitor Analysis: By studying competitors and their products, product managers can identify gaps in the market and potential unmet needs that customers may not even be aware of. Understanding what competitors offer can inspire product improvements and innovation. ➡️ Surfacing Implicit Needs: Sometimes, customers may not be able to express their needs explicitly, but through careful analysis and empathetic understanding, product managers can infer these implicit needs. This requires the ability to interpret feedback, observe behaviors, and understand the context in which customers use the product. ➡️ Iterative Prototyping and Testing: Continuously iterating and testing product prototypes with users allows product managers to gather feedback and refine the product based on real-world usage. Through this iterative process, product managers can uncover deeper customer needs and iteratively improve the product to meet those needs effectively. ➡️ Expertise in the Domain: Product managers, industry thought leaders, academic researchers, and others with deep domain knowledge and expertise can anticipate customer needs based on industry trends, best practices, and a comprehensive understanding of the market. #productinnovation #discovery #productmanagement #productleadership

Customer Success Leaders—If you're not actively shaping the Product Roadmap, you're missing a critical opportunity. The most effective organizations don’t treat CS as a participant—they rely on it as a strategic partner. Product teams should be co-designing the future with their customers. That means: ✅ Understanding emerging use cases and evolving needs ✅ Enhancing the product based on real customer insights ✅ Prioritizing with business impact and revenue in mind In today’s market—where consolidation, cost-cutting, and efficiency are top priorities—building a product that truly solves business challenges is the difference between success and irrelevance. So, how do you drive better alignment between CS and Product? Here’s what I've seen work: 1️⃣ Lead with Data & Insights -Identify the most adopted and least adopted product features -Pinpoint where customers are dropping off and why -Find personas and use cases that drive the most value -Look for patterns and trends across your customer base 2️⃣ Support Data with Customer Stories -Conduct interviews and surveys to capture direct feedback -Dive into workflows and edge cases to understand nuances -Align product evolution with customer goals and business objectives 3️⃣ Prioritize Product Feedback Strategically -Leverage customer data to rank impact and urgency -Tie feedback to revenue—renewals, expansions, and upsells -Ensure recommendations align with the broader product vision 4️⃣ Maintain an Open Dialogue -Establish a structured collaboration rhythm (bi-weekly syncs, Slack channels, shared roadmaps) -Keep all teams informed on designs, timelines, and priorities -Be clear, concise, and adaptable—Product is balancing competing priorities across the org 5️⃣ Close the Loop—Every Time -Set clear expectations with customers early and often -Enable Product teams to engage directly with customers for firsthand learning -Continue gathering feedback even after launch (beta programs, customer advisory boards) At the end of the day, great products are built by teams who stay close to the customer. CS should not be a passive observer in product development—it should be a driving force. When you get this right, you influence retention, expansion, and advocacy. And that’s a business win. __________________ 📣 If you liked my post, you’ll love my newsletter. Every week I share learnings, advice and strategies from my experience going from CSM to CCO. Join 12k+ subscribers of The Journey and turn insights into action. Sign up on my profile.

Here's a lil secret about “check in" or cadence calls with your customers. Many of us were taught that these touchpoints are to understand how the customer is using our product, address any issues, and identify expansion opportunities. Here's the fatal flaw in that theory. Your customer hasn't woken up thinking about your product today. They're not sitting around wondering how to use more of your features. And they certainly haven't assembled a list of needs for you to solve. They have a job, with a job description and priorities they need to execute. So, at best they think of your product maybe 40% of their. At worst its 0%. So, how could we approach customer discovery in a constant fashion? 1 - Build a hypothesis on what business objectives this account is trying to achieve this quarter/year, and seek to understand what you're missing as an outsider. Find this in their latest earnings call, leadership announcements, press releases about new initiatives. Bring it to the call, and frame it as, "This is what I can observe from my research - what did I miss?" 2 - Be curious about HOW your champion currently believes they will accomplish those goals, and seek to understand HOW they formed that opinion. Example: Company's goal is to reduce customer acquisition costs by 30%. Your champion believes they need better lead scoring. They believe this because Marketing keeps sending "bad leads" to Sales. 3 - Introduce evidence that contradicts those beliefs/assumptions. Our goal isn't to tell them they're wrong. It's to introduce an insight that reveals a crack in their thinking. "We analyzed 200 companies in your industry and found the ones with the lowest CAC actually focus first on conversion rate optimization, not lead scoring." 4 - Give them a formula to calculate the implications of continuing with their current approach. This is NOT about your ROI. This is about the cost of continuing down their current path. Always tie this back to a P&L impact: increased costs, decreased revenue, or missed growth opportunities that affect the bottom line. Make it concrete, not conceptual. 5 - If you've piqued their curiosity, suggest that they collect the inputs needed to calculate the size of the problem, and bring those to the next call. Don't jump to how your solution helps yet. Just agree that you'll explore the size of the opportunity together. Customer success calls shouldn't feel like a product usage review or a veiled sales pitch. They should feel like two colleagues looking at the business landscape together, with you bringing outside perspective they can't see from within. The most valuable CS teams don't just ensure adoption—they impact their customer's P&L. When your discovery connects directly to revenue growth, cost reduction, or margin improvement, you transform from a vendor contact to a strategic advisor. What would happen if your CS team approached discovery this way?

We surveyed 1,244 product teams over the last 6 months and uncovered a reality that blew our minds: While all product teams are trying to create products that better satisfy customer needs, over 80% of product teams do not agree on what a customer "need" even is! Teams define "needs" as exciters and delight-ers, pains and gains, specifications and requirements, features, value drivers, wants and benefits, wishes, aspirations... ...and the list goes on, as if any of these inputs will correctly inform the innovation process. Here's the problem: THEY DON'T! Just like any process, only precise inputs lead to a great result. So what is the right input? We know that people buy products and services to get a "job" done. So, let's start by defining customer "needs" as the metrics customers use to measure success when getting a job done. If we know how customers measure success, we can create solutions that help them get their jobs done better--and win in the marketplace. These metrics, which we call the customer's desired outcomes, are tied to the customer's job-to-be-done and are unique in many ways. They are: - measurable and controllable, - actionable, - unambiguous, - solution independent and, - stable over time. When listening to music, for example, a music enthusiast may want to: “minimize the time it takes to get the songs in the desired order for listening.” This is one of many outcomes associated with the job of listening to music. Using these customer inputs as customer need statements, you're able to: 1. Understand how your customer measures success. 2. Measure how well your solutions get the job done. 3. Give your team clear instructions on how to improve your solutions. Watch your team transform when they're aligned with the metrics your customers use to measure success. #CustomerNeeds #InnovationProcess

Track customer UX metrics during design to improve business results. Relying only on analytics to guide your design decisions is a missed opportunity to truly understand your customers. Analytics only show what customers did, not why they did it. Tracking customer interactions throughout the product lifecycle helps businesses measure and understand how customers engage with their products before and after launch. The goal is to ensure the design meets customer needs and achieves desired outcomes before building. By dividing the process into three key stages—customer understanding (attitudinal metrics), customer behavior (behavioral metrics), and customer activity (performance metrics)—you get a clearer picture of customer needs and how your design addresses them. → Customer Understanding In the pre-market phase, gathering insights about how well customers get your product’s value guides your design decisions. Attitudinal metrics collected through surveys or interviews help gauge preferences, needs, and expectations. The goal is to understand how potential customers feel about the product concept. → Customer Behavior Tracking how customers interact with prototype screens or products shows whether the design is effective. Behavioral metrics like click-through rates and session times provide insights into how users engage with the design. This phase bridges the pre-market and post-market stages and helps identify any friction points in the design. →  Customer Activity After launch, post-market performance metrics like task completion and error rates measure how customers use the product in real-world scenarios. These insights help determine if the product meets its goals and how well it supports user needs. Designers should take a data-informed approach by collecting and analyzing data at each stage to make sure the product continues evolving to meet customer needs and business goals. #productdesign #productdiscovery #userresearch #uxresearch

Key learnings from 8+ Years of Customer-First Design 💡 1. Understand the customer’s pain points deeply: The most successful products don’t just solve problems, they solve the right problems. To truly understand what your customers need, immerse yourself in their world. Conduct deep, qualitative research, listen to their stories, and build empathy. Every feature, decision, and design should stem from this fundamental understanding. [Lesson]: Invest time in user research and listen to real customer feedback early and often. ___________________________________ 2. Agility is key, but don't compromise on quality: Startups require you to iterate fast, but a “move fast and break things” mindset shouldn’t come at the expense of delivering a seamless experience. Customers today expect a polished product, even in beta. Striking a balance between agility and quality requires thoughtful prioritisation of features and a focus on minimum viable experiences rather than just minimum viable products. [Lesson]: Create customer delight by balancing speed and quality, focusing on small but meaningful wins. ___________________________________ 3. Personalisation enhances customer loyalty: Personalised experiences make customers feel valued. By leveraging user data to tailor content, product recommendations, or communication, you create a more engaging experience. The more relevant your product feels, the more likely users are to stick around and become loyal advocates. [Lesson] Personalise wherever possible, be it through onboarding flows, UX, or content that speaks directly to individual user journeys. ___________________________________ 4. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication: A customer-first experience should feel intuitive and effortless. Users shouldn't have to think too hard about how to interact with your product. Prioritise simplicity over feature-richness, eliminate unnecessary complexity that confuses users. Always test how users experience your product to ensure it’s frictionless and easy to navigate. [Lesson] Streamline user journeys by simplifying interactions and focusing on clarity over cleverness. ___________________________________ 5. Feedback loops are critical Listening to customers doesn’t stop at launch. You need constant feedback loops, whether through surveys, user testing, analytics, or support channels—to keep improving the product. What worked in the early stages of the startup might need refinement as you scale. Continually refining your product based on direct customer feedback is crucial to long-term success. [Lesson] Build strong feedback loops that keep you connected to customer needs, and iterate based on that insight. Customer-first experiences don’t just happen; they are the result of intentional design, deep empathy, and a commitment to continually evolve based on customer needs. #CustomerFirst #UXDesign #StartupLife #UserExperience #ProductDesign

Bringing a new product to life can feel like setting sail into unknown waters. Each new user insight or piece of data can shift your course, guiding you toward the features and functionalities people truly value. This isn’t about just meeting a quota of user interviews or surveys - it’s about thoughtfully integrating important feedback every step of the way. Start with a Meaningful Launch: Begin with what some refer to as a “Minimal Desirable Product” (MDP). It’s not about stripping your offering down to the bare bones; rather, it’s about releasing something foundational yet appealing enough to encourage engagement. This ensures that the initial user responses you gather are based on a product with genuine potential, rather than on a stripped-down prototype users can’t connect with. Practical Approaches to Leveraging Feedback: - Observe User Behavior: Track how people navigate your platform. Are users breezing through the onboarding, or stumbling at certain steps? These patterns offer direct clues for improvement. - Seek Direct Input: Go beyond metrics and analytics—talk to your users. Interviews, open-ended surveys, and usability tests uncover the nuances of their experience you won’t find in raw data alone. - Refine and Iterate: Feedback is most powerful when it leads to meaningful action. Focus on enhancing what resonates, adjust or remove what doesn’t, and continuously refine your product to align with evolving expectations. - Maintain a Feedback Loop: Don’t treat user engagement as a one-off event. As trends and preferences shift, keep the lines of communication open. Regular feedback cycles help you stay relevant and resource-savvy. Statistics show that many startups fail simply because they build solutions that the market doesn’t actually need. Additionally, a surprising number of product features go unused - a waste of both time and budget. By rooting the development strategy in user feedback, we enhance satisfaction, save resources, and ensure that our product adapts alongside changing market demands. Admittedly, feedback isn’t always easy to hear, especially when it points out fundamental flaws. But every critique is a chance to refocus and deliver a product that’s not only more appealing but also more impactful. Rather than viewing negative comments as setbacks, see them as valuable road signs steering us toward better solutions. How do you incorporate user feedback into your product development process? #innovation #technology #future #management #startups

Misunderstanding Customer Needs = Innovation Failure Most innovation efforts fail because companies don’t truly understand what their customers want. They optimize existing products, chase trends, and build features based on gut instinct—turning innovation into a frustrating, costly guessing game. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This past Wednesday, I had the fun privilege of sharing "Lean JTBD"—how to unlock the secret of making products customers love—with 39 entrepreneurs and business leaders in a TIGER 🐯 Talk at Innovate New Albany. Big thanks to Neil Collins for hosting! Three takeaways: 1️⃣ People don’t buy products and services; they hire them to get their jobs done. 2️⃣ Customers CAN tell us what they want—if you ask the right questions. 3️⃣ If you don’t understand the “job” your customers are hiring your product/service to do, and where their needs remain unmet, then you’re inevitably missing the mark. And that's a completely avoidable mistake. Don’t ask customers what features they want; ask what they need to accomplish. That’s where true innovation starts; not with a "good idea." If you want to make innovation a repeatable business process, it has to start with understanding customer needs. The fastest way to innovate with confidence? Identify your target customers’ important unmet needs—before building anything. This eliminates guesswork and ensures strong market fit—at concept creation. Want to put these insights into action? I'm creating a free PDF: "The Lean JTBD Playbook"—a three-step guide to help you: ✔️ Choose the right growth strategy for product differentiation ✔️ Redefine your market for innovation ✔️ Obtain customer insights that matter Coming soon! Drop a comment or DM me with 'PLAYBOOK' and I’ll send it your way once it’s ready. #Jobstobedone #Innovation #ProductStrategy #differentiation #CustomerNeeds

🆕 New Essay: The Expectation Reset 7 Ways AI Is Redefining Customer Expectations (w/ tons of examples)… Full Essay → https://lnkd.in/giUm_gFn I’m a huge believer in AI. As I wrote in AI Native Product Teams (link in comments), I believe AI is changing how product teams will think, work, and build. But, I feel like a lot of the conversation is focused on the wrong thing. Many think they need to predict the future of what AI is capable of in order to build. But: 🧞♂️ No one can perfectly predict AI’s capabilities years from now 😤 Trying to leads to paralysis 🚂 You risk overbuilding speculative features Trying to predict what AI might be able to do multiple years from now might be a fun exercise, but for many we should be focused on how AI is changing the expectations and needs of our customers. If we don’t, we risk Product Market Fit Collapse (link in comments). Here are 7 ways AI is shifting customer expectations with examples: "A Place For Me To Create" → "Do The Work For Me" AI is changing customer expectations from “give me a tool where I can create” to “do the work for me.” Examples: EvenUp, DevinAI, Midjourney, 11x, Artisan "One Size, I Customize" → "Custom Made For Me" Day.ai is my fav example here. Using AI a Day takes your email, calendar, and answers to a one-page questionnaire to automatically generate a CRM that is tailored to your business. "I Expect To Wait" → "I Expect It Now" AI is also changing the expectation from customers at how fast and convenient you deliver the value. In other words, users are getting “lazier.” (like we weren’t lazy enough already!) Examples: GitHub CoPilot, Intercom Fin, ChatGPT (homework) “I’ll do the busy work” → “The busy work is done for me” Many products require you to perform a lot of manual tasks in order for the team to get value out of it. But most of the time value out < effort to put in. Many are automating this busy work around the real work: Abridge, Anterior, Reforge Insight Analytics, Tana, Truewind, Otter.ai “I’ll Pay Per Seat” → “I’ll Pay For Output” Kyle Polar has written about this. Instead of paying for an approximation of value (per seat) customers are starting to pay for work delivered. Examples: EvenUp, Intercom, Synthesia, Clay, Copy.ai, Imagen “The tool has no context” → “The tool can see what I’m doing” This is one of the coolest IMO that is being under-leveraged. Most software has no idea what you are doing outside of their app. With AI, it can see/understand your screen to create new value. Examples: Gemini Live, Reforge AI Extension, Squint "I'll Learn This Interface" → "The Interface Adapts To Me" Today every time a user adopts a new product they need to learn the UI to get value. AI is able to create a dynamic experience designed for the intent. Examples: Gemini, Perplexity I’d be interested to hear other examples in the comments.