Customers are at the heart of everything we do. This seems obvious, right? Yet all too often we assume shared understanding of who our customer or users are. What their needs are, why we’re building a feature for them – and that they even care about it. We have to remember we are not our customer. The focus needs to remain steadfast on the difference we hope to make for them – not on how we are building the feature.
By understanding and building a relationship with our customers, we can better understand their needs and the root cause of their problems. It allows us to create a better solution, rather than become entangled in what might be the best framework or technology.
Our customers don’t care about how we do it, they don’t care if we do use Agile or Lean. They care about the value we deliver, or the problem we solve for them that makes their life easier.
This enables the product delivery team to embrace a mindset of experimentation; of rapid feedback loops of Build-Measure-Learn feedback loops. A mechanism to challenge our opinions about the people we are delivering to, and ensure they are getting the best outcomes.
Source: Lean UX and the Language of Change, Claire Jaycock & Anthony Boobier, Methods & Tools