1. Customer Visits – Do’s and Don’ts
Gopal Shenoy
Director of Product, International
Care.com, Waltham, MA

2. About Me
 16 years of Product Management
 $1M - $350M product revenues
 0 – 100,000’s of users
 300+ customer visits, 10 countries
 @gopalshenoy

3. Your mileage may vary

4. Customer Visits

5. Why?
Alignment Customer’s
Your “Lab”
world “Task” world
1. Product 1. Task
2. Feature 2. Product Deadlines
3. Technology 3. Beat competition
4. Assumed priorities 4. Real priorities

6. Observing the Unspoken – Data Backup

7. Observing the Unspoken – Data Center

8. Observing the Unspoken – Grocery Shopping

9. Observing the Unspoken - Manufacturing

10. Do’s and Don’ts

11. #1 Don’t
Use customer visits to:
 Forecast potential sales in a new market
 “Product A” or “Product B” the right product?
 Close a deal for sales
 Help save an account for sales

12. #1 Do
Use customer visits to:
 Discover unmet customer need
 Discover how customers use your product today
 Discover where your product fits into the customer’s
ecosystem

13. #2 Don’t
Do not take the time to define who you want to visit
and what you want to learn. After all, talking to
customers is a good thing.

14. #2 Do profile who you want to visit
• New vs. Experienced User
• Customer vs. Prospect
• User vs. Technical/Economical buyer
• Engineer vs. Manager

15. #3 Don’t
Do not qualify the customer – “All customers are the
same, so why bother?”

16. #2 Do Qualify the Customer
 Clear the visit with the sales/legal/customer
support/marketing
 Landmines/Locked up skeletons
 Are they currently in the sales funnel?
 Communicate objectives
 Set expectations (Purpose & Duration)
 Determine availability of right people
 Schedule the visit

17. #4 Don’t
Assume what works in the US works everywhere else
in the world

18. #4 Do
28%
17%
40%
5%
8%

19. #5 Don’t
Teams tend to go through the motion of doing ONE
customer visit, so that they can claim they know what ALL
end users want.

20. #5 Do
Take the same team to multiple visits. More diverse the
customers the better

21. #6 Don’t
Do not spend time researching your customer before the
visit. After all, the visit is to learn all about them.

22. #6 – Do - Preparation Checklist
 Customer Research
 Website – Products/Service?
 Bug reports
 Previous visits
 Enhancement requests
 Develop a discussion guide
 Questions to ask
 Send guide to customer
 Confirm the visit 1 week before

23. Day of Exploration has arrived !!

24. #7 – Don’t Leave Your Opinions Behind
Too many marketing people go through the motions of
visiting customers, looking for facts that will confirm their
previously formed opinions of what should be done.
- Ries and Trout, Bottom Up Marketing

25. #7 Do - Commit to Listen …..
Nature has given to me one tongue, but two ears, that
we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.
- Epictetus, Greek philosopher

26. #8 Don’t
 Start by asking for their pet enhancement
 Ask convoluted, overly complex questions
(If “X=Y” and “Y=A” and “Z=D”, will it satisfy your need?)
 Ask leading questions
(“Don’t you think this solution is better than the other?”)
 Ask biased questions
(“We are thinking about this great idea. What do you
think about it?”)

27. #8 Do
 Set expectations
 Start with simple questions
 Ask them about their products (get them talking)

28. #9 Don’t
Implement what customers ask for. After
all, they know the best

29. #9 Do
 Customers propose solutions, not state problems
 Observe the dynamics (emotions, expressions)
 Facilitate discussions
 Notes, notes, notes
 Write down customer quotes

30. #10 Don’t
 Get defensive if customer snubs the project you just
slaved on
 Take control of the mouse (stupid customer!, what do
they know )
 Tell them that their need is satisfied by an existing feature

31. Things will go wrong
 Current issues or pet enhancements
 Discussion goes off on tangents
 Rips your company and everything else related
(VARs, subscription, quality etc.)
 Contradicts himself
 Talks about another product

32. #10 – Do - When Things Go Wrong ….
 Never cut off the customer
 Do not lose your cool
 Acknowledge, not ratify

33. #11 - International Visits
 Language barrier
 Have local office arrange everything
 Respect cultural differences
 Dress code

34. #12 - Report Your Findings …..
 Single summary report for each “group” or “segment”
 Only “qualitative” results, not “quantitative”
 Include customer quotes
 State the next steps
 Send the report to all decision makers
 Tell field/sales what you learnt

35. Your Role on a Customer Visit

36. Conclusions ….
 You are EXPLORERS
 Listen, listen, listen
 Qualitative conclusions ONLY
 Customer Visits are NOT “an all purpose research” tool

37. Thank You !
 gshenoy@care.com
 Blog: Software Product Manager
(productmanagementtips.com)
 I am hiring – Product Manager, International at Care.com