Integrating customer focus in product development

The power of customer-centric product development

A business is nothing without its customers. Most entrepreneurs will do customer and market research in the early stage of their business development, but we like to think making customers a core part of ongoing product development is a more sustainable path to business success.

It’s not easy, but it is simple when you narrow the scope of customer-centric product development to five key questions:

1. How does my product address a customer need or pain point?
2. Does my product net a positive or personalized customer experience?
3. How do I want customers to engage with my product?
4. What people or tools are in place to help me actively listen to and learn from customers?
5. How am I acting on customer feedback to improve my product?

The human element in product development

It’s not just about designing a product that works; it’s about designing a product that people connect with. In her article, Be them, with them, about them, Amena Schlaikjer suggests that entrepreneurs use tools like empathy mapping to gain a holistic view of the customer experience, visualizing what customers think, feel, say and do in relation to a product.

If you approach early and ongoing customer research in a thoughtful manner, you’ll have a clear idea of your customer’s desires and the solutions that deliver the greatest value. With this knowledge, you can take a customer-focused approach to product development, developing product features and benefits as you go.

Natalia Sanyal is a great example of an entrepreneur who built her product using real-time insights from LinkedIn to develop and improve.

After earning five-figure monthly retainers from the likes of Deepak Chopra and Glennon Doyle, she decided to go a more accessible route with Momentum, a monthly subscription where humanity-first personal brands can get the resources they need to generate high impact social media content. She tested the idea with a few early customers, all the while sharing live insights as she was building her product.

Developing a product in stages, as Natalia did, creates the opportunity for it to fit seamlessly into the customer’s life. In addition to empathy maps, emotional design further enhances the connection between business and customer by exploring how a product makes the customer feel. That way, products don’t just solve problems, they become the vehicle for both a functional and fulfilling customer experience.

Serendipity–the secret ingredient of great products

Serendipity is often overlooked in the context of business success, but it’s true that the best ideas come from unexpected places.

When you open yourself to serendipitous moments, casual conversations, unrelated industries and spontaneous interactions become catalysts for product improvement. Breakthroughs that might never have emerged through a purely analytical approach begin to find their way into your life, enabling the dreams you set out to fulfill. Entrepreneurs can create space for serendipity by:

1. Putting themselves in environments where chance encounters and spontaneous ideas are likely e.g. informal brainstorming sessions, diverse industry events or unstructured, solo exploration.
2. Embracing failure and the unplanned as opportunities instead of obstacles. Offhand comments from customers, unexpected challenges and even unrelated events can lead you to solutions that are ultimately better suited for you and your customers.
3. Layering data with gut instinct, when it comes to impulse decisions. Intuition often provides the “why” behind the numbers, but it’s important to seek out data that helps you get a clearer picture of a split-second-decision rather than justifying it.

When it comes to integrating customer focus into product development, sometimes what customers don’t say is just as important as what they do say. Groove’s tips on building a culture of business that focuses on the customer showcase the importance of listening between the lines when engaging with customers.