These are the slides from my keynote on customer obsession at the growth marketing SUMMIT 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany.
In it, I share my perspective on the importance of customer obsession for every business out there and which action items you can tackle to change your company's DNA tomorrow.
More details about the talk can be found at herbigt.com/speaking.
Sources:
https://www.nirandfar.com/2018/04/customer-obsession.html
https://www.slideshare.net/RebeccaMosner/netflix-from-product-strategy-to-execution
iridion.com/gms18
bit.ly/DigitalGrowth2018
Similar to How Customer Focussed Are You Really? - How to implement customer obsession in your optimization process. at growth marketing SUMMIT 2018 (20)
9. Focus on Method-Problem Fit
ProblemConsProsMethod
Quick-Start for
new hypotheses
Can lead to over-
optimization
Measure behavior
change
Requires scale
Untestable projects
Customer has
"seat at table."
Customers “lie”
20. TrendPrev. MonthThis Month
Share of employees
which have direct
access to customers
x% x%
No. of steps it takes
to talk directly to a
customer for any
employee
x x
Share of employees
who responded to
customer support
tickets themselves
within the last month
x% x%
22. Customer MetricsBusiness Metrics
Release Dates
No. of Features
Shipped
Sprint Velocity
Generated Revenue
for Customer
No. of Support
Requests for Features
Cross- or Upsell
within Product
I’m here to challenge your perspective on Customer Centricity and I already apologize for being ‘the one’ between you and the lunch break
Quick show of hands: Who in this room would describe themselves as “customer focussed”? Ok, now keep your hands up if you would describe your company/company you work for as customer centric?
See that? That’s part of the problem, but we’ll get to that.
How will I do that?
Key takeaways
Relevance of Customer Obsession
Which players have mastered it and how
What you can take with you for when you return to work on Monday
And, as a special contribution to our host Andre: No animations
Let me tell you a story about the absolute lack of customer focus
Potential result of lacking customer focus
Not going to bore you with this one
Instead, let’s talk about what can prevent you from dying
Instead, let’s talk about what can prevent you from dying
Netflix mastered challenge of transforming their entire business through customer obsession
Mastered it because they didn’t randomly throw methods around, but became aware of which problem
Experiment of combining A/B Testing and Qualitative/long term brand factors for decision
Short-term revenue drop vs. long-term brand building
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/RebeccaMosner/netflix-from-product-strategy-to-execution?from_action=save
Result
• • • • •
Launch, or not?
Launched to all
Positive WOM and brand effect Customer more likely to restart Revenue shift not loss? Possible long-term gain?
Customer Obsession requires a changed approach to three core parts of your business
Static Silo and single responsibility
Shift to shared responsibility and democratized access
Time based roadmaps may give you perceived security, but actually let leave you in the dark
Environmental factors change rapidly and so does the impact of the same experiment over time
Tim, that all sounds great in theory, but how on earth should I make this work in my company
Fear no more, here’s exactly what to do on Monday!
We made the shit on the left side up to keep us busy all day
But the ones on the right can at least serve as a proxy for how much we have been able to help our customers to succeed
By incentivizing teams for metrics on the left, you support the wrong behavior and risk features being developed aside from customer needs
Slack channel where all customer feedback lands with mandatory joining of teams
Schedule weekly customer interviews in advance → Rotating interviewers
Let (product) teams rotate through answering customer support for their features
n=242 asked companies
n=242 asked companies
Method-Problem Fit
Check attitude, process and structure
You can improve things immediately
Not control instance for employees → Reminder for Management in terms of enablement
Instead, let’s talk about what can prevent you from dying
So, what’s happening here? Everything around us is changing at a freaking pace
Companies are build upon 3 pillars: People, Product and Process
And every single one of these is going through incredibly radical change:
People → employee turnover has drastically reduced. Coming from dying within a company to considering 2 years a max.
Product → emerging platforms & business models. The reduced friction to start new businesses makes is impossible to defend yourself against new incumbents
Process → ways of working (e.g. agile & remote). New products, and a changed employee mindset ask for new ways to organize companies and the entire concept of working principles like agile or remote is based on changing rapidly
We love to pride ourselves of being customer centric
But in order to survive, you need to become customer obsessed
Netflix didn’t just throw every method against the wall
Recognized downside of every method to determine right moment to use them
Story about informed decision regarding roll-out of subscription renewal confirmation, not only listen to one method → think of long-term
So, what’s happening here? Everything around us is changing at a freaking pace
Companies are build upon 3 pillars: People, Product and Process
And every single one of these is going through incredibly radical change:
People → employee turnover
Product → emerging platforms & business models
Process → ways of working (e.g. agile & remote)
So, what’s happening here? Everything around us is changing at a freaking pace
Companies are build upon 3 pillars: People, Product and Process
And every single one of these is going through incredibly radical change:
People → employee turnover
Product → emerging platforms & business models
Process → ways of working (e.g. agile & remote)
Netflix didn’t just throw every method against the wall
Recognized downside of every method to determine right moment to use them
In general:
Qualitative: What people day
Quantitative: What people do
Story about informed decision regarding roll-out of subscription renewal confirmation, not only listen to one method → think of long-term
So, what’s happening here? Everything around us is changing at a freaking pace
Companies are build upon 3 pillars: People, Product and Process
And every single one of these is going through incredibly radical change:
People → employee turnover
Product → emerging platforms & business models
Process → ways of working (e.g. agile & remote)
So, what’s happening here? Everything around us is changing at a freaking pace
Companies are build upon 3 pillars: People, Product and Process
And every single one of these is going through incredibly radical change:
People → employee turnover
Product → emerging platforms & business models
Process → ways of working (e.g. agile & remote)
Let’s set things straight in terms of the terminology here first
So, why should you actually rather want to center your work around customers instead of having to do it → let me show you
Feedback river
Change your thinking from seeing customer feedback as a silo task/knowledge, to a river of wisdom running through your company
And just like it is in the real world, an environment can only thrive if everybody has access to a river
You need to democratize access to customer feedback!