This document discusses the importance of customer obsession for product managers. It argues that customers want solutions to their problems and will pay more for better solutions that provide value. To maximize profits, companies must maximize customer happiness. The document outlines three key aspects of customer obsession: solving customer problems, helping customers when things go wrong, and delivering "wow" experiences. It advises product managers to build empathy for customers, talk to customers to understand needs, and continuously test solutions with customers.

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Customer Obsession - More Than a Buzzword
by Stripe Product Leader

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5. CUSTOMER OBSESSION
MORE THAN A BUZZ WORD

6. WHO AM I?
• Product Manager at Stripe (8 months)
• Product Manager at Amazon (3 years)
• Mostly in school for bachelors and my MBA
• Huge basketball and Lebron fan

7. DISCLAIMER
• Words are my own, not Stripe’s, not Amazon’s, my opinions.

8. AGENDA
• Why are customers important?
• Why customer obsession is important?
• How PMs can be customer obsessed
• The 3 phases of customer obsession
• Summary

9. BEZOS
There are many ways to center a business. You can be
competitor focused, you can be product focused, you
can be technology focused, you can be business model
focused, and there are more. But in my view,
obsessive customer focus is by far the most protective of
Day 1 vitality. Why? There are many advantages to a
customer-centric approach, but here’s the big one:
customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied,
even when they report being happy and business is great.
Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want
something better, and your desire to delight customers will
drive you to invent on their behalf.

10. WHY ARE CUSTOMERS IMPORTANT?
• Customers are very willing to pay to solve their problems
• And they’ll pay more for even more value
• As a business, to maximize profits, you must maximize
customer happiness.

11. AS A CUSTOMER HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE
OBSESSED OVER?
•
😞
Mobile network call center (T-Mobile)
Massage parlor running very late

12. AS A CUSTOMER HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE
OBSESSED OVER?
•
😊 😞
Missing Amazon package Mobile network call center (T-Mobile)
Broken Jarvis desk Massage parlor running very late
Apple Store

14. • It feels great! 😊
• Everyone loves attention! We all want to feel valued
• We’ll pay for that attention and pay even more for extra attention
• As a PM, you should want to invent on behalf of your customer. You should want to
delight them
• To maximize profits, you must maximize customer happiness
AS A CUSTOMER HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE
OBSESSED OVER?

15. HOW TO BECOME CUSTOMER OBSESSED AS A PM
• It takes work, so first, understand why customer obsession is even important
• Once you believe in it, then you’ll do the work
• The work
1. Build user empathy by living the life of your customer
2. Talk to customers to deeply understand their needs and pains
3. Continuously validate ideas and solutions with customers

16. BUILD EMPATHY - LIVE THE LIFE OF YOUR
CUSTOMER
• Personally go through
what customers go
through
• Use your product
• E.g. Stripe dogfooding

17. TALK TO CUSTOMERS
• Understand their pain points and their needs. Not ask them what they want.

18. VALIDATE IDEAS AND
SOLUTIONS
• TEST TEST TEST!!!
• Validate your solution with customers.
• Does it solve the needs they had?
• Does it create new needs?
• Does it wow them?

19. HOW TO BE CUSTOMER OBSESSED
• Build empathy
• Talk to customers
• Test! Test! Test!

20. 3 PHASES OF CUSTOMER OBSESSION
• Solving customer problems
• Build empathy
• Talk to customers
• Validate and test
• Helping customers safe-land when things don’t go as planned
• Delivering customer magic. Wow factor

21. WHAT YOU DO WHEN THINGS DON’T GO AS
PLANNED
• Nothing is perfect. So how do you
make up for that?
• Amazon customer support
• Jarvis desk support

22. CUSTOMER MAGIC, THE WOW FACTOR

23. • Amazon tells me package is lost before I realize it and they re-order a new one for me.
• The Tesla
CUSTOMER MAGIC, THE WOW FACTOR

24. 3 PHASES OF CUSTOMER OBSESSION
Solve
customer
problems
Help them
safe-land
Deliver
customer
magic

25. SUMMARY
• Customers pay for your product and service
• Customer obsession is the desire to delight customers
• Delighting customers makes them feel good, which helps your product/business
• How to be customer obsessed
• Build Empathy
• Talk to customers
• Test test test
• 3 Phases
Solve customer problems Help them safe-land Deliver customer magic

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