Product managers have a problem.
The fact is, they aren’t getting the data they need to make product decisions.
CEOs have a problem.
Their product teams can’t make the right product decisions and so products can end up stale and lagging behind. Scarce resources are being spent working on the wrong things affecting growth and valuations.
Ultimately, this all leads to frustrated teams, churn and difficulty in acquiring new users.
I’ve already written about how quickly the SaaS industry moves and how you can’t ever achieve Product-Market fit.
In this article I’m going to give you some practical advice.
If you’re a CEO, then you need to ensure your product teams are getting all the information they need. And, as the CEO, it’s your job to make sure that happens.
Here are some simple steps you can take as CEO to ensure your product team make decisions which are aligned with your strategy and hit the mark every time.
1: Create a Feedback Channel
It sounds obvious, but without a feedback channel you can’t collect feedback, pain points, product improvements or feature requests.
Chances are, you already have plenty of feedback channels. Emails, social media, market research, customer success, support, sales - all of these offer different ways of collecting feedback but none are consistent and it can leave your teams frustrated and your customers feeling like their feedback has disappeared into a black hole.
Too many channels leading to nowhere is the problem. In this instance, the more is not the merrier. Instead, you just need ONE feedback channel. One feedback channel to rule them all.
This helps to collect all the data in one place, enabling your product team to organize and analyze it effectively.
This channel could be a dedicated email address, it could be a spreadsheet that your customers are invited to edit, or it could even be software built for this exact purpose.
I’m pretty sure there’s one beginning with ‘Re’ and ending in ‘ceptive’ but I can’t quite think of the name…
Anyway, the point is that you need to focus on ONE feedback channel that everyone (customers, team members, prospects) can easily access and update.
2: Get Everyone on Board
For this to work, everyone in your organization needs to be aware of what you’re trying to achieve.
There’s no point in creating a feedback channel if people aren’t going to use it.
If Sam from Sales puts prospect feedback in a Google Doc and Sally from Success puts customer feedback in a Trello board, then how can your product team possibly hope to access all that data?
As CEO, it’s your responsibility to make sure everyone is on the same page. A good way of doing this is by creating a Product Feedback Policy (PFP).
This is essentially a document outlining your approach to feedback as an organization. It helps set expectations so your customers know what sort of feedback you’re looking for.
It also helps your employees understand how your approach will work for them.
You can learn how to write your own PFP here…
3: Spread the Word
Part of your job as CEO is to effectively be the company’s mouthpiece. You have the power to spread the word about how much you want feedback.
The trouble with creating a feedback channel, and getting everyone on board, is that it doesn’t mean that customers will automatically flock to it.
So you need to drum up some engagement.
There are lots of ways you can do this. If you have a blog, then write a blog post explaining how much you want feedback and how it’ll help you make a better product.
Send an email out to your customers asking for their feedback and making them aware that they can submit it at any time.
A great way that works extremely well for some of the companies we work with is for the CEO to make a short video explaining why they need feedback and how people can submit it.
These are all great ways of spreading the word and getting the ball rolling with your feedback efforts.
You can Start Today!
The best thing about the advice I’ve given you in this article is that you can start working on it today.
The sooner you start, in fact, the sooner you’ll be helping your product team get the data they need. And that ultimately means that you can build a better product.
To recap, the three things you should do are:
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Create a feedback channel - gather all your feedback in one place.
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Get everyone on board - ensure your customers, team members, and prospects understand what to submit and where to submit it.
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Spread the word - write a blog post, send an email, or shoot a video that explains what you’re trying to achieve.
If you do all of these things then I guarantee your product team will love you.
And in the end, a happy product team means a better product. It’s as simple as that.
If you really want to help your product team get the data they need, why not Learn more and see how we can help?
