Zen of PM - Validating Your Productwith Customers and Partners

Validating Your Productwith Customers and Partners

Justbecause you completed all your homework to understand the customer and contextand thoughtfully iterated on perfecting the design does not guarantee that yourdesign will necessarily hit home with customers as you envisioned. As theproduct takes shape, program managers play a valuable role in validating thedesign with customers and partners. The sooner you obtain quality feedback, thesooner you can adjust your plan, if necessary. Even before a design isimplemented, tools like slides and storyboards can be used to solicit earlyfeedback. That said, there will always be lessons that can only be learned asthe product is built. Validating early builds or betas with customers isessential and program managers play a vital role in engaging customers infeedback programs and consolidating feedback from betas, usability studies, andother sources. Once the feedback starts rolling in, it is also the programmanager’s responsibility and role to guide the team in responding to feedback.What should be changed immediately? What can wait until the next version? Howshould the responses be compiled to respond to customers? Where could betterdocumentation or a small design change make a major impact on the customerexperience?