Use empathy to build great products
As a product manager, you are responsible for building products that your customers love. It is easier said than said done. To do so, you will need to understand your customers. So, product managers need to master the skill to listen & engage with customers effectively and then translate the feedback into lovable product solutions.
Fear not, in large and well-established companies, a dedicated research team will be available to help product managers understand the customer. In cases where a research team is not available, product managers, unfortunately, have to step up and perform the needful.
Both product managers and researchers' job is to understand the customer. However, there is a key difference. Understanding this difference will help product managers work effectively with researchers:
Product Managers are responsible for shipping a product to the customer.
Researchers are responsible for assisting product managers in understanding the customer.
Researchers are also well versed in interpreting customers. They can organize research sessions where researchers sit with customers and watch how they work and navigate in completing the task at hand.
One trait that stands out when working with customers, be it with the help of a research team or not, is customer empathy.
The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively manner.
Being empathetic to your customers means a lot of things, mostly it means being patient of all. Use activities below to practice being empathetic to your customers.
Learn to listen
You are building the product to serve your customers. Why not spend more time listening to what your customers want?
Listening is hard, but I can't stress how important this skill is for product managers. There is no doubt, we product managers are competent and believe we have answer to everything. However, when talking to your customers, you will discover a whole new world (and problems) that you didn't realize was plausible. Be sure to calm down, listen to customers, and walk the same path as your customers. In other words - feel their needs, pains, and challenges.
Few things you will come to understand by doing this:
What success or happiness means to your customers
How customers are working and solving their problems today
What will motivate your customers to use your product
Don't argue
It is easy for product managers to argue with customers about how things should work and how you are right and the customer wrong.
Calming down and walking in the customer's shoes will help you get out of those situations and focus on understanding customer needs.
Hold on to your thoughts & feelings, instead prioritize customers' thoughts and feelings. Understand that while you are eager to share your product story or how it works, wait for your customer to complete their side of the story.
It usually happens when customers tell us how they do things or solve their problems today, we are quick to jump in, cut the conversation and push solutions to customers. Instead, let customers complete their thought and then pose the question back to the customer about how they would solve the problem. This will yield better responses than you providing solutions to customers.
Lean into those insights
One of the rewards you will get from being empathetic to your customers is the invaluable insights. Insights that help you:
Validate product hypothesis.
Build products that customers love.
Prioritize features.
Remember always to take notes so you can always refer to them at a later period. If you are working with your research team, trust your research team to assist with a detailed customer report. It is also vital to communicate the insights with your team and product stakeholders.
Like analyzing your metrics for usage trends, analyze these insights to generate a compelling report to support your product development.
Iterate
Continue and hone that skill to listen. It will take some time, but you will be amazed by its rewards. Being customer-obsessed is product management, so find your customers and start engaging with them. You will be surprised how eager they are to help you. I mean, why wouldn't they? You are going to solve their biggest problems.
One thing to note is that empathy is a powerful skill to build upon regardless. You can apply it on all occasions - whether pitching your idea to stakeholders or discussing the problem/solutions with your engineering team, or mentoring junior product managers - being empathetic will lead you to be a great product manager.