A while back we spoke to a trio of inspiring product leaders: Marley Dizney Swanson from MPB, Ryan McGrew from Zendesk, and Zach Hobbs from Atmosphere TV, about how to build actionable strategies for turning customer feedback into product development gold. From prioritization to journey mapping, the conversation spotlighted how successful teams stay customer-obsessed while meeting business goals.
Prioritizing Customer Needs in Planning
All panelists agreed that a strong foundation of customer insight is key to shaping annual plans and roadmaps. They use a blend of continuous listening and structured planning:
- Atmosphere TV sends product teams to physical locations to talk with users monthly. These insights form hypotheses that drive UX research and eventually roadmap decisions.
- MPB aggregates feedback from NPS surveys, Trustpilot, forums, and internal teams. Pain points are ranked by frequency and business impact, then fed into roadmap planning.
- Zendesk blends bottom-up feedback from support tickets and community forums with top-down market insights. Decisions are aligned with business KPIs like revenue and churn.
Balancing Innovation and Fixes
Innovative features and core issue resolutions don’t have to be at odds:
- Zendesk focuses AI innovation on solving traditional support challenges more efficiently, merging modern tech with legacy pain points.
- MPB distinguishes between "evergreen" and "discrete" issues. Evergreen pain points like trust are ripe for innovation (e.g., their new product comparison tool).
- Atmosphere TV creates separate teams for innovation and maintenance to avoid trade-off paralysis, supporting a culture where fixing things is as valued as creating new ones.
From Feedback to Metrics: Real Impact Stories
The session included compelling use cases where customer insights directly boosted business metrics:
- Atmosphere TV shifted its KPI focus from engagement (logins) to retention and NPS after discovering customers valued simplicity over usage.
- Zendesk increased adoption of AI agents by building customer trust through transparent previews and source-cited outputs.
- MPB used feedback insights from Chattermill to clarify accessory requirements for sellers. The result? Higher NPS and increased quote conversion.
Collaboration Across Teams
Cross-functional alignment was a core theme:
- MPB maintains a shared product and customer org structure, publishes monthly VOC reports, and holds quarterly feedback alignment sessions.
- Zendesk uses shared roadmaps, feedback SLAs, and public forums to create accountability between teams.
- Atmosphere TV drives buy-in with customer videos, app reviews, and ad-hoc Slack shoutouts, creating emotional resonance around customer challenges.
Takeaways for Product Teams
- Quantify pain points with data and impact metrics before pitching.
- Balance short-term fixes with long-term bets by assigning dedicated teams.
- Use structured listening forums like VOC reports to foster collaboration.
- Supplement dashboards with human stories to influence hearts and minds.
- Don’t just collect feedback - synthesize insights and operationalize them.
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