Customers are your best insight into launching a new product if only you're willing to listen.
gfpeck via Flickr
We have been working with an early-stage enterprise tech company to
help them get their product to market. We recently gathered to watch
their first customer installation. They were naively
fearless--they knew things would go wrong, but they didn't know what or
how severe the problems would be.
No one, however, expected the install to go as badly as it did. If
there was a feature that could be broken, it was. If there was a process
that could be challenged by the new technology, it was. If there was a
remote possibility that some network setting would cause chaos, it did.
All the testing they did in advance didn't prepare them for "real"
users. The tech team was at first horrified by the volume and severity
of the challenges they experienced. But then something amazing happened.
They showed us exactly why we are excited about their potential.
They took a deep breath, stopped trying to gloss over the challenges,
and instead embraced their flaws. They encouraged users to try to break
things. They feverishly took notes as they learned what they needed to
do better.
The customer wasn't scared off by the bugs because our client had
prepared them for possible issues. The team was honest about where the
problems were, but more importantly, they showed the customer their
resolve to learn everything that they could to develop a great product.
The customer's attitude actually shifted from tolerance to excitement as
they realized the system was going to be refined beyond just fixing
flaws and that they were going to be a part of designing a system that
they would love to use.
The tech company accepted that they didn't know it all and eagerly
solicited feedback from the customer. The experience gave them the best
free product development input they could ever expect.
We thought to our own client experiences, and the experiences our
other clients have with their customers. If we can all listen to
customers as openly as this tech start-up did, we will not only build
great products and services, but we will forge the sort of lasting
relationships that most companies seek.
When developing new products and services, it's good to trust your
intuition and your internal expertise--to a point. But when an
opportunity to learn from a real live customer presents itself, you need
to be all ears. You can't possibly know it all if you don't recognize
the wisdom of others.
Please send us your thoughts at Karlandbill@avondalestrategicpartners.com
Associate Jason Abromaitis contributed to this article.
SOURCE: www.inc.com
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