This document discusses how to build great products by focusing on customers rather than internal priorities like revenue or technology. It recommends six ways of working: 1) Obsess over customers instead of other priorities; 2) Get important people directly interacting with customers; 3) Resist using proxies like surveys instead of directly understanding customers; 4) Avoid fictional customer personas and stereotypes; 5) Show new ideas to customers early and often; 6) Measure what matters to customers and hold yourself accountable to the customer mission. The key is to spend direct time with real customers to truly understand them rather than relying on proxies, and to measure success based on customer priorities rather than just internal metrics like revenue.

1. Breaking
Conway’s Law:
How to work differently &
not ship your org chart
Tatyana Mamut, PhD
Head of Product, Nextdoor

2. What makes
building great
products hard?

4. ENGINE

5. WEATHER

6. PIRATES

7. Making Decisions when everyone on the inside
has a different perspective & partial knowledge

8. Make Customers
The North Star

15. An organization that walks the
talk on Customer Centricity:
6 Ways of Working

16. 1
Obsess over customers
instead of revenue,
competitors, technology, or
business model

18. 2
Get busy & important people
“in the field” with customers

23. 3
Resist Proxies

24. “RESIST PROXIES”
“Market research and customer surveys can become proxies for
customers – something that’s especially dangerous when you’re
inventing and designing products...
I’m not against beta testing or surveys. But you, the product or
service owner, must understand the customer, have a vision, and
love the offering. Then, beta testing and research [and process]
can help you find your blind spots. A remarkable customer
experience starts with heart, intuition, curiosity, play, guts, taste.
You won’t find any of it in a survey.”
- 2017 Amazon Shareholder Letter

25. SURVEYS
& TESTS

26. SALESPEOPLE

28. 4
Don’t make up fictional
customers & don’t stereotype
customers

30. FICTIONAL
CUSTOMERS
(ie. personas)

31. EXERCISE:
How might your organization develop
the habits to obsess over customers
“instead of” revenues, technology,
competitors, or the business model?

32. EXERCISE:
- WHAT WE CURRENTLY DO
- WHAT WE MIGHT START DOING
- WHAT WE MIGHT STOP DOING

33. 5
Show new ideas to customers
early, and often

36. 6
Measure what matters to
customers, and make yourself
accountable for your mission
& purpose

39. EXERCISE:
How might your organization align
product metrics around customer
values and your own mission and
purpose?

40. EXERCISE:
- CURRENT TOP PRODUCT METRIC(S)
- THE STORY THIS TELLS
- WHAT COULD WE START
MEASURING TO SHIFT THE STORY?

41. Don’t ship your org chart:
- Spend time in the field with real
customers / “resist proxies”
- Measure what matters to your
customers, not just your
shareholders

42. Thank you.
in/tmamut