I was part of a start-up once where I constantly heard from the founder quoting Henry Ford. And at the same time hearing “listen to your customers, give them what they want. Give them what they want to pay for”. Probably from everyone else including myself.

I have been thinking a lot about this specially when I started learning about product management. I was confused about where the line was: Hend Ford and Steve Jobs on not giving a voice to customers (?!), but at the same time designing great solutions, or listening to customer and give them what they want! I wondered where does miracle happen in this process if ‘you don’t listen to customers, how do they figure out what customers’ need are?

Then I learned. You do need to listen to customers. Every single word they say. Most of the times, they don’t even say it. You have to ask, carefully, patiently, delicately but what is important is this is all in problem domain. We need to ask and understand customers, their problem and needs in their own language. And that’s where it ends. The problem space ends here. We leave customers here with great detail understanding of their requirements.

And we go and work on solution, in solution space, with our team. The team that shares same understanding of problem – possibly have the same vision for solution. Customers should not be allowed in solution space. They should be consulted, asked for feedback to ensure the solution meet their needs but they have no involvement in designing the solution.

There is no line on when to listen to customer and when not to. We should always listen to customers, but it’s absolutely vital to remember these finding belongs in problem space. The are of good system analyst, a good good product manager, is to elicit what customers need and work out the solution in the solution space to translate those finding and requirements to solution.