Question of the week: Which comes first?

[JoeSorge]

Here's a question that I'd love to get your thoughts on today.

In business, which comes first: your customer or your product?

[cptnrandy]

I've tried it both ways. If the prospect asked for something, I could do that. But now, I make it very clear what service I offer and either bring in a partner for things that are out of my scope, refer the business, or simply decline.

I find that this often earns respect and a customer. Some what "full service", whatever that means, but it is also more difficult to say what a person or company does if they try to do everything. My customers all know precisely what I do and when they need it (writing, content, content strategy), I'm the guy they first think of and call. That I have capacity beyond myself means that I can coordinate a project or refer it, and that keeps them happy.

[RyanS]

Without a product, you'd have no customers. With no customers, do you really have a product? - Old proverb ;)

I'm going to go with the customer comes first. Many businesses have been started with a vision, and that vision has been sold (to customers or investors) before it has been physically created. But without those customers the vision would have never come to fruition.

[JoeSorge]

Thanks Randy and Ryan, exactly the discussion that I was hoping to start, the old proverb, ha. Let's see where this goes.

[JimRaffel]

Without a doubt the customer for us. It all starts and ends with the customer. The products and services we deliver are based upon their needs.

[BillRice]

Your customer! I've done it the other way and wasted a lot of money. Here's why (IMHO). People buy what they WANT, not always what they NEED.

Here's my thinking, based on some pretty specific experience (i.e., failures in starting with a product).

As experts and product creators we often design (and invest in) the ideal solution to problems we know exist. We build efficiency, perfection, and feature comprehensive. However, buyers are rarely driven by perfect solutions for their business.

Customers are driven by dreams, failures, and fears (not original - Blair Warren - but I believe it intensely). Start with the customers and discover their dreams, failures, and fears. Build your product based on these. Then sell it!

[SteffanAntonas]

Here's a question that I'd love to get your thoughts on today....In business, which comes first: your customer or your product?

I see this question posed more specifically two ways...

#1: (Chicken And Egg) Where do you start focusing in order to build a great business, on your customers or on your product?
A: The best way to build a great business is find a need that lots of people have that no one else is filling and fill it. Before you even start to develop a product, you need an intimate knowledge of who you're going to be serving. If you don't know who your customers will be (or you don't have a good idea of who they might be, which is the same thing at that stage) you're just throwing the dice and rubbing a rabbit's foot. It's too tough to ask the question "which comes first". That's like saying "in a good marriage, which comes first, the Bride or the Groom?". It doesn't make sense to separate them, especially in the early stages. Building a great business requires a perfect marriage between customer and product. You're the one designing and nurturing that connection from the get-go. Ideally, and we see this in the best startups that create software, you'll include your customer early on in the design process and build them into the feedback loop and let them guide the development of the product so that what you end up with is exactly what they want (which is exactly what you want). I can think of at least one guy who runs a burger joint where he invites his customers to provide feedback and tweak the menu....what's his name again? ;-). That's the 2.0 model. Customer designs the product, business owner does everything necessary to allow them to do it effectively and translate their expressed needs into a viable business.

#2: What should you devote more attention to on a day to day basis, your customers or your product?
A: This depends on lifecyle. Early on, spend more time focusing on the product. You're probably looking at a 30% customer, 60% product attention ratio. The early stage is about getting the product perfect and integrating the customer into the process just enough that you get it right, but not too much that you have the time and energy to build something. Once the business matures, the attention ratio flips, and the kind of attention you spend on your customers and product changes. Product changes decrease, attention you give to customers starts including service, education etc.

[SBrogan]

No question. The customer comes first. Without good customer relationships, our best products would go unsold or unnoticed. We want our customers to be satisfied with the product that they receive. www.Brogan-Arts.com (http://www.brogan-arts.com/Jewelry.html)

[amysept]

I think there are theoretical and practical aspects to both sides of the argument, but from my limited experience I'd like to throw in a third element: business values.

To expand on what cptnrandy said above, I think if you absolutely put your customer first, you risk chasing an elusive "perfect product" until your business is no longer aligned with what you created. Alternatively, focusing on your product and excluding your customer entirely seems the sort of thing to put you out of business in a hurry.

I think you need to have something greater, like values (or your vision, mission, mantra, etc.), to measure input and development against. This may be especially true for small KTCs; whichever you place first, if you don't like how your business develops, what on earth are you going to do about it - quit?

I'm approaching this from a service provider/consultant point of view and I don't have a physical product in hand; if I'm not helping my client reach their goals, I truly have nothing to offer. So my initial thought was "Easy question: the customer".

However, I'm also learning that some customers are not the right customers for me - not because they're wrong and not because my product is wrong, but because I understand that our core values are different. I just had a discussion on Friday with someone who fired a client for the same reason. So in my work, at least, as much as I know that in many ways my customer must come first, I also know that I need to be able to recognize when to put my faith behind what I'm offering.

[DBrogan]

Here's a question that I'd love to get your thoughts on today.

In business, which comes first: your customer or your product?

At Brogan-Arts. com we started with a product: wire wrapped jewelry. All I wanted to do was learn how to wrap a crystal to make it into a necklace. I went on line and found a whole course on wire wrapping. I was a student again. That happened in January. In June of that year, I was re-engineered out of my job. I became a full time jewelry maker. For three years, we sold on line as well as at craft shows. Now we only sell on line.

When Steve Brogan says "The customer comes first" he is correct. Our customers made our business profitable and continue to come back for more.

The problem with producing a physical product is the making of said product. Steve and I know how to sell more product, but we don't have the time or energy to create enough quality jewelry to supply the need that grew from Brogan-Arts.com.

Starting MomPopPow.com is a different story. We have a ready built audience. Our mission is to create daily posts talking about technology for non-technical folks and to bring a smile to your face. We sell T-Shirts on the side that are designed by us, but created and shipped by others.

We are older Baby Boomers who have a lot of life left. We are curious. We have a story. We want to encourage others who have a story. We want to show others the wonderful world outside of their own living space. News shows highlight all of the terrible things going on in the world, but there are so many wonderful things happening.

Getting back to the original question of what comes first the customer or the product - I think it all depends on what your product is or will be. The internet has changed the world we live in. Some many jobs and opportunities have been developed or helped by the internet, supply and demand have changed.

I've heard so much about AJBombers on the internet, I want to go to Milwaukee just to experience AJBombers.

[siobhain]

As a consulting business that's focused on training in-house creative teams, my business has to put the customer first.

It's important to me that my training be customized to the specific needs of the client - which means my customers are really driving the way I approach the development of my product/service. For instance, if the team is great at coming up with concepts but lousy at presenting their ideas, I'll spend more time in helping them develop their presentation skills.

The key for me is going to be paying very close attention to what my customers are telling me and to what I observe with the various teams upfront - otherwise, the product I deliver could miss the mark completely.

[Brew]

This is tricky, because I feel like it's a trick question. It's like the Tron light-cycle game: both bikes starting off at the same time. You need to focus on your product, so you can attract customers, but you need customers in order to continue developing the product.

I always have some sort of customer in mind (sometimes myself) when developing a new product idea, and then you cultivate customers along the way. Give them a voice. Make them feel like they are steering, even if you had it mind from the start.

The key is to lead them and guide them while listening to them. Don't get me wrong - you'll definitely need to change your path and adjust to the needs of the customer during the ride - but you'll always come out on top when you allow them to feel like they are apart of your every next move. Let the community feel like it's their baby, and you'll have a much better likelihood of rocketing to success. It's very similar to how you should be leading your employees in a bigger enterprise, by the way.

[CThomas]

Awesome discussion! I entered this thread with an answer in mind, but in reading all the responses, it's changed my perspective. My initial gut reaction was to say customer first, always. I am a UXer you know, I would be discredited if I didn't, right? But, now I'm not so sure in terms of business building. I've seen businesses fall because they continually try to change what they offer based on market needs. They don't know what they do, or what their real value or "product" is they have to offer. They hear a need, and try to fill it, with often sub-par solutions.

I think if you define "product" as more of a foundational idea, value, expertise or belief... it must begin product. The actual outputs and tangibles can then more successfully be driven and helped defined by customers. The foundation will be set, and your customers can help build from there.

[cptnrandy]

Good responses so far!

I really stake my claim on product/service offering. You listen to clients, of course, and shape your offering over time, but without some boundary that tells you when you're "out of scope", off the reservation, or simply making yourself available as a body to do whatever your customer wants (face it, you're an employee at this point), you don't know what your product or offering really is.

This is especially important if you want to be the best at something. Customers will only recognize your product as the best when they can clearly identify what it is.

But pay attention to your customers. They might have a different idea of what your product is or should be than what you do. They may or may not be correct, but you need to know what they're thinking.

Saying, "no, it doesn't do that" can be powerful, especially if you can clearly say what your product or offering can do. It comes down to understanding the value of yor product.

[ChrisReimer]

This question can mean several things. I am reading it to mean, "Should you do anything to please your customer with regards to your products, or should you remain true to your products and what you do best." Answering the question based on my interpretation, stay true to your product. For instance, I have customers asking me to do custom tee work all the time. I just don't do it. Doing such work would distract me from providing great customer service on my existing products. My take on this is that your customer can ask you for anything they want any time they want, and you don't have to do it/make it/provide it just because they asked. If what they asked for is not in your wheelhouse, don't dip your toe in that water!

[JoeSorge]

We had a pretty great discussion about which comes first as part of one of our Episodes of Kitchen Table Talks over on the Pulse.

Here's that video if you're interested in watching. The discussion happens at about 16:00 (never mind my freeze frame shorn dome in the frame :) )

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Here's the link if you can't see the video for some reason: http://thepulsenetwork.com/technology/kitchen-table-talks/01-11-11-episode-6/