How to influence team using Product Feedback

As a PLG leader, you know getting customer feedback is just the first step. The bigger challenge is sharing this feedback with your team in a way that leads to real product improvements. It's not the product feedback itself; it's the way your team experiences the product feedback. Let's look at what doesn't work and what are effective communication strategies.

Common Pitfalls Influencing Team using Product Feedback

The Biased Feedback

One common mistake is just writing up all the feedback you get and sending it to your team. This usually turns into a long report that includes your own opinions and misses important details from what customers actually said.

On top of it, you are incorporating your biases from other insights. As a recipient, its quick to see that while the feedback is worthwhile, I will take it with a grain of salt.

The Feedback Dump

Another mistake is giving your team tons of raw feedback and expecting them to figure it out. When this happens, team members (Designer, Engineer, Sales, Marketing) usually just pick out the feedback that matches their worldview and what they already think about the product, which doesn't help them learn anything new.

This causes more confusion on how to interpret the data as well as takes you and your team down the wrong direction and wastes time on the wrong discussion. 

Effective Strategies Influencing Team using Product Feedback

Sharing Recordings

A better way is to share Zoom recordings of customer feedback sessions with your team. While this helps them hear directly from customers, sometimes it's hard to understand the customer's background or tech skills just from a recording.

Also, nobody has time to watch recordings if they are not* forced to do so.

Watching Customers in Real Time

The best method I've found for your team member to be inspired and take action — is getting them to join actual customer calls. This works well because:

1. Real-Time Empathy: Team members can watch customers use the product right in front of them

2. Unfiltered Struggles: They see exactly where customers get stuck

3. Understanding the Customer as a Human: They learn about the customer's background, personality, and character

Type of Customer Calls to gathering Product Feedback

Superhuman Onboarding Calls

Invite team members to join Onboarding calls with customers. 

• Have team members observe quietly 

• Let customers explore the product on their own

• Don't give too much help, so you can see how customers naturally use things

Post-Activation Follow-up Calls

When customers leave product feedbacks and reviews on sites like G2:

• Try to set up calls with these reviewers

• Bring engineers and designers to these calls

Product-Led Sales Calls

Involve team members in late-stage sales calls to:

• Hear what customers say about the paywalls and pricing

• Understand customer decision-making processes

• See how users react to advanced features

Breaking Down Rigid Engineering Mindsets

Challenge the notion that engineers should only build and not interact with customers. This mindset is limits the team's ability. Makers naturally want to understand how their creations are used.

Its a major red flag if an Engineering Leader expressed that their engineering team is only available to build, and nothing more. On top of it, this relies more and burdens the Product Leader and PLG Leaders to explain and create solutions in fine detail. Because the ownership is never shared, and the final product development will become a wasted effort. 

Influencing Team using Product Feedback

By involving team members in direct customer feedback:

1. They become eager to own and manage improvements

2. They identify solutions faster

3. It creates a learning flywheel, continuously improving the product

4. Demonstrates a company-wide commitment to customer satisfaction

As a product leader, leveraging customer feedback and observations is a powerful tool for aligning your team, instilling confidence, and driving product improvements. Also ensures that your product roadmap is truly customer-centric.

Read more:

• How to influence using Product Data?

• How to influence using Product Intuition?

• The Real Journey to Product-Led Growth: Reflections and Lessons Learned from the Trenches

• A Year in Life as Head of PLG

• Your Onboarding Sucks

• How to communicate product-led growth Roadmap to Stakeholders

• How to use customer feedback in your PLG product roadmap?

I write daily*** about my learning on launching and leading PLG. Feel free to subscribe.

I am Gary Yau Chan. 3x Head of Growth. Product Growth specialist. 26x hackathon winner. I write about #PLG and #BuildInPublic. Please follow me on LinkedIn, or read about what you can hire me for on my Notion page.