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Everyone knows that they should spend time with customers. Sadly in many tech companies, this doesn’t actually happen.

Some product companies have dedicated departments of people who communicate with customers. This has always felt like a shame to me.

Some companies, relegate customer feedback to designers. This is equally a shame in my mind.

Gathering feedback is not just the role for designers. Every role at a company can benefit from interacting with customers. You can ask them what’s working. Ask them what’s broken. You can watch them use the product and see where they’re getting stuck.

If you’re a happiness engineer, if you’re a product manager or a project manager or a program manager. If you’re an engineer. You should all be regularly interfacing with customers.

Done across multiple departments, it can create a compounding effect that has no downside… Other than needing to get over your aversion to talking to customers.

This work can pay dividends. And it benefits everyone involved, and it will help your company continually dial in your product market fit.