Episode 4: Approaching Problem Discussions With Pierre Grenier, Zendesk

Product Demand Intelligence Podcast

About The Episode In this episode, Hannah talks with Pierre Grenier, who is Head of the ‘Voice of the Customer’ program at Zendesk. He brings a refreshing and unique perspective to building products thanks to his vast experience in both senior product management and customer experience roles. He’s also the first podcast guest to prepare a script to demonstrate some fantastic points! He tells us about how he approaches problem discussions with customers and how this not only benefits the customers, but everyone at Zendesk too. In the episode we walk through: * Why SaaS companies should adopt a problem-based approach with their customers & teams; * The pitfalls of focusing on feature requests and solutions too early on; The importance of asking “Why” to understand customer pain points; * Advice & proven tips for giving your customers the best possible experience when they spend their time giving you feedback & feature requests; * Why creativity empowers product teams and how to harness this when it comes to how your SaaS organization handles customer feedback and feature requests. Who Should Listen? There are many great take-aways from this episode and it is perfect for anyone working in leadership, product, support or customer success. Key Takeaways: * You can’t build the right product without understanding the underlying problem; * It’s not the customer responsibility to think through the full impact of a feature request; * Building customer feature requests “as is” is potentially deadly for a SaaS business; * Product teams want to think creatively and innovate with their product so you need to enable them to do so; * Focusing on the problem provides a better product but also a richer and more fulfilling experience for the entire customer base; * A problem-based philosophy is beneficial for your whole SaaS organization.