Your Customers are Children
I recently had the opportunity to take part in the Junior Achievement program at a local elementary school. I was paired up with my boss and between the two of us we were in charge of teaching a class of 4th graders for 5–6 hours. At face value it seemed like a tall task, but luckily for us the curriculum was provided, 5 individual lessons all geared around business and entrepreneurship.
In the days since this experience, I’ve been reflecting on my experience and can’t help but draw some parallels between teaching kids and working in Product Management.
Know Your Audience
I was told it would be easy, but as I poured over the material in the days before teaching I kept wondering how I was going to keep everything straight while engaging a class of around thirty ten-year olds. One thing was very apparent to me as I went through the material, I wasn’t going to feel comfortable teaching these students until I understood the material and could relate to them on some level. When I introduced myself to the class I made the joke that I have a name like Captain America (because my last name is Rogers) and hair like Thor (I have long hair). Within seconds one of the students dubbed me Captain Thor, a nickname I carried for the duration of my visit.
In the product world that means not only knowing your product, but knowing your industry, your competition, and most of all knowing your customer. What are their needs and what outcomes are they trying to achieve.
When working with customers it can be easy to focus too much on talking the talk and getting into too many details. Instead we should be asking questions like “how would this make your job easier?” or “what would have made this twice as good?” Questions that are simple, but can elicit feedback that goes beyond “This looks great” or “I’d definitely use this”. Instead producing feedback which helps you see further than what you may have previously considered.
3 Types of People
In retrospect, I observed a couple of things about the students I was teaching and couldn’t help but to compare them to the customers I work with.
First, you have the students who always raise their hands. These students are eager to contribute to the conversation, they may not always have the right answer or even an answer, but they definitely have something they want to say.
We run into customers like this. They are very willing to talk with you about your new product ideas and beta test new features. It can become easy to default to them when you are looking for validation, but beware of customers that have trouble seeing faults in your products or ideas, they may not be contributing valuable feedback.
Next, you have students that only raise their hands only when they know the answer. They aren’t as willing to put themselves out there, but when they do it’s usually for a good cause.
Customers like this tend to latch on to one feature or improvement they’d like to see added to your product. For the most part they are happy, but they really engage when they catch wind of you working on something they’ve been waiting for. While these customers are great for feedback on a specific product or feature, they don’t speak for all of your customers. Beware of letting their opinions hold too much sway in your decision making.
Last, you have kids that don’t raise their hands. They only contribute when called on. This can be for a myriad of reasons which I won’t get into, but these kids are capable of contributing in great ways. It’s up to you to figure out how to get them to contribute.
Customers like this aren’t proactive in their feedback. They either feel they are too busy, that it won’t matter, or they just don’t care enough. These customers must be engaged with proactively (cold calls, in person visits, etc.), if not you may run the risk of losing them. They may assume what they have will never change and the only way to see change is to look at other options.
Seeing and Being Seen
One thing is true of all customer types. They all feel validated when they are heard and contributing to building new and better things. Just like with our students, when we handed out our Junior Achievement certificates at the end of our time, each child greeted their certificate with a large grin. The feeling of validation and recognition can mean a lot for a young or even an old mind.
When working with customers be sure to highlight new ideas that they bring to the table. Elaborate on their thoughts and don’t be afraid to spend time talking about what they want to. It may be hard for customers to think about new features if they are having issues with the existing ones. Most of all show your gratitude for their contributions. Let them know they are helping shape your product for all users and that their feedback contributes to what is released. Thank them for the time they spend talking with you and be respectful of that time.
In conclusion I want to leave you with this quote I recently stumbled upon (I saw it browsing Twitter…):
Few things can more quickly transform our sense of a person’s character than picturing him or her as a child. From this perspective, we are better able to express the sympathy and generosity that we all but naturally display toward the young, whom we tend to describe as naughty rather than bad, cheeky rather than arrogant.
— Alain De Botton — Status Anxiety
With this quote I pose a challenge, to view your customers as children. To express empathy and gain a better understanding of who they are and how you can help them.
