Earn Your Customers' Trust

Bob Corrigan at ack/nak (a funny blog that's sometimes about product management) tells a great story about a Japanese concept called omakase. Read it. It's quick.

The story is about the implicit trust that develops between people when they know each other and each other's needs very well. He compares it to the level of trust he would like to achieve as a product manager with his customers.

I think it takes time and deep experience with a particular customer base to develop. I think I probably only got there once as a PM - after 5 or 6 years at the same company and only with a handful of customers.

This may be a less lofty ideal, but I think the story illustrates how you can't be a really good PM for a product until you know its customers well enough to effectively guess how they will react to a proposed new feature without asking them first.

Comments

[bob corrigan]

It's *all* about product management. Because product management is about sifting through a universe of inputs to discern the discrete acts that will lead to success. I merely document some of those inputs that I sift through. Such as delicious beverages and whatnot.

bob