Selling the value of product conversation to fellow product managers

Selling the importance of getting customer feedback to product teams is as important as convincing a customer to engage in an ongoing conversation. It is in fact tougher than convincing a customer. If you are the product manager designated to manage customer relationships, you need to treat other product managers and product designers as internal customers. You need to articulate the value of  customer conversations to them. It is not easy to convince a product team to engage in a structured ongoing conversation with customers regularly when they have internal deadlines to meet. You need to earn their trust and respect. No matter how busy you are, showing up in product workshops is a good way to start earning their trust.

The product manager who manages customers, needs to participate in product design work sessions with his or her peers and identify problems that can be solved by talking to a customer. Participating in a product design workshop and brainstorming sessions is the best way to understand the challenges faced by the product design team. Just concentrating on arranging customer conversations without an understanding of the purpose of the product or the current challenges is not good enough.

Understanding the challenges faced by product designers will help determine the type of customers to reach out to, the type of concepts that need validation and the timing of such conversations. Product managers who manage customers will also benefit a lot by gathering feedback from his or her peers on past customer conversations and course correct where required.