Why user empathy is important for a Product Manager?
I had one of the most important learnings in the initial days of my product management journey when I was working on a product for children. In order to access the content of the application, the users (kids in this case) had to sign in to their accounts at school. While conducting user interviews and going through user complaints, we realized that children studying in kindergarten needed help with the sign-in process.
On further analysis, we found out that “entering the password/code” was the hardest step in the process. The main reason behind this was that the code was alphanumeric but the children in kindergarten didn't understand all the alphabets and numbers and hence, were not able to sign in. This feels quite obvious now, but at that time, it was not so obvious for me and was an important lesson. I didn’t realize that children in KG have not yet had a grasp of the language and number system. This re-emphasized the core principle of product management which is to empathize with the user. While developing a feature, a product manager needs to think from the customer’s point of view and cover all the corner cases.
Thinking about this reminds me of an image that I came across some time back which is hilarious as well as accurate. In this image, the parents are seen drooling over the toy that they recently got for their newborn just like how all of us product managers feel proud of the products/features that we have built. The image also shows the view of the toys from the kid’s position which is not at all exciting. The image represents a lack of user empathy while building the product. Such problems seem obvious once identified, but can be easily missed in the implementation process. This generally happens when PMs work in silos on their product without taking into account the user’s problems and feedback.
Developing customer empathy and incorporating user feedback are two of the main pillars of product management. Working on multiple products and features over the years has made me realize the importance of speaking to the users and taking into account their pain points and needs. I have come across 3 ways to achieve this: (of course, there can be many more)
- User Interviews: These interviews give you a look inside the thought process of the users. It is a goldmine waiting to be discovered. Don’t just schedule the interviews for the sake of it but go well prepared in these interviews. Keep a questionnaire prepared, have a list of steps that you want the user to undertake, and have another person record observations while you interact with the users.
- Data Analysis: Heatmaps and funnel analysis can provide an insight into the way the features are used by the majority of the users. They can complement and validate the findings from the user interviews or in some cases act as the motivation to conduct the user interview to validate your data analysis.
- Customer support team: This team is the face of the complaints and the issues that the users face on a day-to-day basis while using your product. Although it is impossible to go through all the complaints and messages received by this team, creating a word cloud and doing focused research can provide you with needed insights. Moreover, speaking to this team on a regular basis can help you understand the top issues faced by the users.
Thus, following some frameworks and techniques to understand your user better will always help in building a product/feature that is actually needed and will be widely used. The customer empathy part will take some time to develop and will improve with experience and time. But the basic principle remains the same, be in touch with your user and step into their shoes while building your product.
