Know Your Customer or Risk Failure

Happy Monday everyone! Happy to introduce our guest author Elizabeth Coluby, business coach, consultant, and fractional executive, to the Cleveland Product Newsletter this week. Lots going on in the Cleveland Product community this week, so let’s get to it!

Article of the Week

According to Forbes, 85% of products fail when companies don’t talk to consumers. Why? Most companies understand their clients “a mile wide and an inch deep.” They think they know enough about their customer’s needs, pain points, and desires, but it’s often superficial knowledge, not deep enough to anticipate trends and changing needs.

Solution? Create an Ideal Client Avatar.

In my article, I will explain why you should create a well-defined Ideal Client Avatar to know your customers better. Here are the questions I will answer:

• What is it? (Key areas to explore)

• How do I create one? (3 step process)

• Who should use it? (Hint: the answer is everyone on the team)

• What's next? (Creating the avatar is foundational but only the 1st step)

Remember, the Ideal Client Avatar should be a living document updated regularly as you learn more about your ideal client and their pain points - yes, their pain points, not just their problems!

Click the Read Article button below to learn more.

Recent Events

Thank you to Justin Hunsaker for his presentation last week about Executive Storytelling. We Product people have to build influence with our stories, which will help us build advocacy for products, features, and capabilities we are looking to build.

Justin gave us ways to communicate in very simple terms, reminding us that each audience member consumes data differently, while also providing tactics for making our presentations as effective as possible.

Product Jobs of the Week

The Product roles at Cleveland companies keep rolling in!

• Steris - Product Manager

• Eaton - Senior Manager, IT Product Ownership - Supply Chain Planning and Technical Product Owner - Master Data Management

• nvent - Associate Product Manager

Upcoming Events

• November 8th - Product Lean Coffee @ Van Aken Market Hall

• November 16th - Lay of The Land with Jeffrey Stern (virtual)

About the Author

My name is Shawn Leitner. I started the Cleveland Product networking group in 2017, which helps to connect Product professionals around Cleveland, providing them with a forum to network, learn, and share stories. For my day job, I'm a Product Consultant & Coach for Pathfinder Product and help clients implement strong Product practices so they can create products that their teams love building and their customers love using. Connect with me on LinkedIn or feel free to attend one of my events either virtually or in-person. Always up for meeting for a cup of coffee also!