Building a Client-Driven Product RoadmapHOW TO COLLECT THE BEST, MOST THOROUGH AND MOST ACCURATE FEEDBACK FROM EXISTING CUSTOMERS

Overview

This document is intended to propose the most through and objective approach possible to collecting maximum product feedback from existing customers.

The fundamental approach is based on commonly accepted best practices in the collection of customer-centric requirements gathering.

Pre

para

tio

n

Review existing

customer data

Identify Users

Ou

treach

Official outreach

to each client for

participation

support

Set and manage

expectations

about both

process and

results

Data

Gath

eri

ng

Pre-meeting

survey to existing

users

Stakeholder

interviews and

observation

Data

Syn

thesi

s

Organization of

quantitative data

Organization of

qualitative data

Ro

ad

map

Deve

lop

men

t

Distillation of

requirements

Communication

plan with clients

about future

plans

Step #1 – Identify Customers

Review Existing Data

Review implementation information of customers to be interviewed

Product mix

High-level business practices

Customizations

Metrics and analytics

Identify Users

Which groups/teams within the client organization are using which product?

Where are the teams located?

How big are they?

What, if any, was their previous solution?

Step #2 – Official Outreach

Solicit Support

Each customer’s support must be solicited for participation

Preliminary communication by main executive relationship-owner from within product company

Formal follow-up communication, including process overview

Set Expectations Drive clear expectations with clients about

purpose, process and product

Purpose: Collect first-hand input from daily users of system to drive product enhancement opportunities

Process: On-site interviews with cross-functional team members; and unobtrusive observation of users interacting with the system

Product: Client-specific feedback report; collective feedback report; product development plans (high-level)

Step #3 – Data Gathering

Pre-meeting Survey

System Users will be sent a short online survey to help with preliminary data gathering about their experience and impressions of the system

Interviews & Observation

Group and/or individual interviews are used to collect known issues, limitations or areas of improvement that users are actively and consciously aware of within the system

Observation of users during their workday identifies inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement which would never occur to users to request

Step #4 – Data Synthesis

Quantitative Data

Distillation of user data/metrics, business analytics and customer feedback survey

Capture quantifiable trends from the interview and observation data

Qualitative Data

Logical “bucketing” of data collected by:

Client

Feature

Sentiment

Key observations, quotes, preferences, limitations and requests

Step #5 – Roadmap Development

Final Requirements Analysis

Internal review with product stakeholders about customer feedback results

External-facing customer deliverables distilling results (specifics TBD)

Roadmap Communication Plan

Go-forward plan for communicating with and engaging customers for on-going feedback and development

Online portal (a la OneDesk)

Customer newletters

Regular customer webinars

Formal customer advisory board

Requirements to Complete Project

Client-specific implementation data to understand what products the customer is using, how many people are using it, how long they have been using it, etc.

Online survey solution for data collection and aggregation

Engagement of leadership teams at both product company and key customer locations – including allocation and scheduling of key resources needed to complete each step

On-site travel to most appropriate client location(s) for in-person interviews and observation of hands-on system users by data gathering team

Do something worth talking about