If you know me, you know I love people and understanding their problems.

Customer obsession is why I love Jeff Bezos.

Customer obsession is why a little chair sits on my desk.

Customer obsession is why I love sales.

Customer obsession is why I want to start a business one day.

But customer obsession is not good when you’re looking to the customer for solutions.

And that’s okay.

It’s not your customers job to find solutions.

Finding solutions is your job, as a company, or as an employee.

A great example of this is captured in the timeless quote from Henry Ford, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Customers are fantastic at communicating their pain points but terrible at communicating what they want.

Understand their pain points so well that you can think outside of the box in a way to solve them.

Frequently show potential solutions to your customers, with rapid testing to get their thoughts, but don’t ask them to build a solution.

“In almost every example where a fantastic solution was created, it didn’t come from users, customers, or sales. Rather, great products require an intense collaboration with design and engineering to solve real problems for your users and customers, in ways that meet the needs of your business. In each of these examples, the users had no idea the solution they fell in love with was possible.”

– Marty Cagan, Inspired

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.