Customer Obsession (part I)
Early thoughts on customers conversations while building 0-1
Originally published on Linkedin
When Ramnath hired me two years ago, there is one thing I told him is an absolute non-negotiable for me:
"I want to be able to talk to as many customers as I want--no red tape."
In my career so far as a PM, I've always found conversations with customers to be one of the most rewarding and highest ROI ways of spending my time.
It's turned me into someone who relies on first names and anecdotes to ground product whiteboarding discussions and be able to make tradeoff decisions with confidence.
Especially over the last year, as I've been working on the 0->1 product Sidebar, I've spoken to 80+ teams, and we've structured a design partnership program with a few trusted customers to help drive even more clarity and conviction on the things we're shipping.
As we build highly verticalized AI agents, it's important to keep these customers close and be able to use them as a sounding board. With their domain knowledge, and the speed at which we're able to iterate (we've made prompt changes live on call with customers and tested outcomes with them!), these early partnerships are what helps turn "demoware" into a usable (and evenutally lovable) product.
Few of the biggest things you can learn from early customers is:
- How they interact with (prompt/chat with) your agent. Eval sets might not cover the nuances with which users might interact with the chat bot. A vertical AI needs to recognize intent properly
- How they expect outputs to look like. "Accuracy" is not just about content but also presentation. The same AI output presented in different ways results in different customer outcomes.
- Where the want your tool to lie in the control vs. agency plane. Some use cases call for higher control over agent outcomes. When customers use your product, they will tell you where they need a "pilot" vs. where they need a "co-pilot".
Staying close to customers and constantly working with them towards true outcome makes them feel like they have skin in the game, and creates long-lasting champions that help you in the long run.