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Vill Yu

How often do you talk with your users/customers?

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All sorts of “product bible”s are talking about the importance of talking and listening to your customers or users. But let’s be honest, how often do you really talk to your customers/users? When was the last time? And how was the communication conducted ?

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Lucia Wang
So true! Every product guide says ‘talk to your users,’ but in reality, it’s easy to get caught up in everything else. I try to have structured check-ins—whether through user interviews, feedback surveys, or just casual DMs/comments.
Paola Santiago
Agree 100%. Most product guides don't take account of the way many founders or (from my exp. product manager) have to take multiple hats just to deploy something, and taking to the users would put on an extra 15 hours a week. And some founders don't even want to listen to the users if they contradict their passion. I've not seen resource out there that takes account the actual emotions behind building those products.
Lucia Wang

@psproductpersonSuch a good point, Paola. The emotional investment in building something you're passionate about is real, and it’s not easy to hear feedback that challenges your vision. Plus, with founders and product managers juggling so many roles, finding the time to engage deeply with users feels like a luxury.

I think what’s missing in those product guides is advice on how to balance both—like setting up systems to gather user insights passively (through analytics or surveys) while still carving out smaller, meaningful moments for direct conversations.

Paola Santiago

@itsonlylucia Absolutely! 100% this happens everywhere, but since most of my experience is from startups, I would say that this is almost the norm for them. The juggle struggle is real! Context switching is one of your worst enemies when it comes to actually finishing your deliverable, but it's absolutely necessary when it comes to running the startup.

Those are great ideas! An automated analytics set-up/dashboard based on the weekly check-in is a time saver. I was actually really proud to have that set up in a small startup because it saved me HOURS. I also found that to carve out those meaningful conversations.

You also have to go for the jugular in the messages, especially with the founders, when it comes to carving out meaningful conversations. It's almost like Twitter. Preferably, 1-2 sentences at a time and only 1 question. You can't ask them two questions at the same time since they often get confused and miss one.

Melody liu
It's not easy for a Company to "really talk" to their customers, not mention the frequency. Base on the Dunbar's Number, human being can mentain relationship within 150 people, but the customers/users are countless, it's an impossible task for human, AI tools definitely are the only solution.