• Product Owner

Hybrid working brings you closer to your customer

What hasn’t changed since March 2020

Addressing people and asking what they think about your product or service is and remains difficult. You have to cross a threshold. Your body says, “Addressing strangers. Brrrr!” Asking what they really think about your product or service: “Does that really have to be in this conversation?” It’s also not easy to ask the right questions. You quickly lapse into, “Difficult! I’ll do it another time!” The result? You easily switch back to your own assumptions and anecdotal knowledge.

New opportunities of hybrid working

What did change is easy to see and talk to people for a while. You don’t have to physically visit anymore. So tackle that “get out of the building syndrome,” because now you can just meet in between meetings. From behind your desk. As a result, what you can do now – much more than before – is empathize with your customers. Set up a video call while they’re using your product or service. Or just after. Then you see the emotions on their faces, you see how they interact with your product, what they value and what they really need.

The easiest customer to approach is yourself

What you yourself want, and why, is obvious. You just know it and that knowledge is always at hand. It is so easy to get to that knowledge that you often confuse your own wishes with those of your clients. Fortunately, there is a solution: you first empathize with your clients and then ask yourself what you would like. If you try to empathize, you’ll find that there’s a lot you don’t know, or aren’t sure about. You can research that. That way you empathize more and more and get closer and closer to your customer.

Managing for results

You know you’re on the right track when your results improve. That’s right Agile: the result takes precedence over the plan. Learning quickly and making adjustments is more important than sticking to the plan. Approaching your customers is one of the best ways to learn quickly. Want much more guidance to get results? You will find a comprehensive approach in the book Steering for Results by Anton Vanhoucke and Denise Visser! That book has recently gone on sale at Bol.com and Managementboek.nl.