Customer’s Voice and Product Success: 3 Key Insights by Lisa Orr, Sr. Product Manager at Zapier

It’s no secret that understanding and satisfying your customers is the key to a thriving business and product success. From observing customers “in the wild” as they use your product or talking to them directly about their experiences, gathering customer feedback is a critical part of a product manager’s job.

In a quick conversation with Lisa Orr, Sr. Product Manager at Zapier, we asked her to share three ways a product manager can leverage customer feedback to make great products. Let’s get to them:

Open for Feedback

Successful companies know the importance of strong communication with their customers. This
means being open to feedback and establishing effective communication channels, whether that be a community slack channel, email, support tickets, micro surveys, or even by booking live feedback sessions.

One of the best ways I’ve found for gathering ongoing feedback is to post calendar links directly into our product help docs so you can jump on calls with customers when they’re feeling the most pain. If the customer is already looking up how to use your product, chances are they have some valuable insights to share on product usability!

Fix the Pain Points

Once you’ve got a steady stream of customer feedback, it’s time to put it to good use. Analyze the information you’ve gathered, identify any recurring issues or pain points, and work to address them in your product. A quick tip: you can use a customer feedback analytics platform for that.

You can also do an even better job at this if you are using the product yourself, aka “dogfooding”, allowing you to anticipate pain points and opportunities for innovation. By being quick to act on customer feedback, you’ll not only increase customer satisfaction but also build loyalty, as they’ll appreciate your efforts to make their experience better.

Amplify the customer’s voice

Never underestimate the power of a single customer quote. Whenever I share product insights with stakeholders, I make sure to include at least one customer quote along with their name, role, and company. This helps stakeholders truly identify with the customer and the pain (or joy!) they are feeling. You’ll have your stakeholders rallying around questions like “Have we solved Bob’s problem yet? We have to help Bob!“. Sharing customer quotes humanizes the customer and reminds your team that there are real people behind the numbers.

Focusing on the customer’s voice is vital for the ongoing product success. By understanding your customers, being open to feedback, and addressing their pain points, you’ll establish lasting relationships and gain a competitive edge in your market.

In conclusion, the power of the customer’s voice in product success cannot be overstated. Lisa Orr shared valuable insights on how product managers can leverage customer feedback to create great products. By being open to feedback, fixing pain points, and amplifying the customer’s voice, businesses can establish lasting relationships and gain a competitive edge. To further enhance your customer feedback efforts, consider utilizing Birdie, a feedback analytics platform for Product Teams. Birdie provides powerful tools to analyze and act on customer insights, helping you drive product success.

Watch our webinar on Product success and Continuous Discovery