{"id":1615,"date":"2019-07-10T10:10:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T14:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog3.canny.io\/wordpress\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:05:07","slug":"product-management-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/product-management-success\/","title":{"rendered":"5 reasons why customer feedback is vital for product management success"},"content":{"rendered":"

62% of product managers say that their biggest challenge is to validate whether the market needs what they\u2019re building<\/a>. External feedback is crucial for product management success.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to continuously seek feedback from customers to know what they\u2019re thinking and feeling about your offering.<\/p>\n

More importantly, feedback is not just about listening to customers, it\u2019s about taking action on it.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this article is to start a discussion with product managers on why customer feedback is vital for their success.<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll learn the tricks of the trade, and remind yourself about the purpose behind your job.<\/p>\n

Reason 1: you\u2019re building a product for customers<\/h2>\n

The number one reason why you should seek customer feedback is because you\u2019re building a product for them.<\/p>\n

Customers are your end users, and they\u2019re the ones who pay for your product. Your job depends on how much they love it.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Quite simply, your job as a product manager is to build something people love. Feedback is the road that leads to that.<\/p>\n

As a product manager, your job is to put yourself in the customer\u2019s shoes, empathize as profoundly as possible, and then get to work.<\/p>\n

Customer feedback is the fuel that will help you connect the dots between design, technology and business to create amazing products.<\/p>\n

Once you understand your customers, you\u2019ll be far more effective in communicating their needs to your engineering, design and business teams.<\/p>\n

Reason 2: make continuous improvements to your product<\/h2>\n

You can only make improvements to your product if you know what could be improved. In the competitive environment we\u2019re living in, you want to make sure you don\u2019t lag behind.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important for product folks to always remember that they\u2019re building a product for real customers, not themselves. So making informed product decisions on feedback is the way.<\/p>\n

As Elon Musk says:<\/p>\n

\u201cConstantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you\u2019re doing is as valuable as gold.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why customer feedback is so critically important<\/a> for both incremental improvements to your product, as well as product pivots.<\/p>\n

The former is when you\u2019re only making \u2018tweaks\u2019 to your product or modifying features, while the latter is making drastic changes to the overall strategy or direction of your product.<\/p>\n

As a product manager, it\u2019s important you stay \u2018agile\u2019, by always staying updated on what you\u2019re customers are thinking and feeling about your product.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why customer feedback is the silver bullet for your agility as a product manager.<\/p>\n

Reason 3: for prioritizing product features<\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019ve collected all the feedback you can get, you\u2019ll have a ton of product feature ideas that will emerge from it. You may not be able to implement all of them due to resource constraints, or time limitations.<\/p>\n

This makes prioritization another key aspect of your job.<\/p>\n

You can use a decision making framework to prioritize product features<\/a>, based on the feedback you receive.<\/p>\n

You could:<\/p>\n