100’s of conversations later, I’m here to tell you the juice from this sort of inquiry is so worth the squeeze. And you/your team can get started right away in as little as an hour or two per week. But you need a different kind of discussion than the one you (or your customer) is naturally inclined to have.

That’s the move from simply being the folks who spin a good yarn about whatever thing other people in the org make, to becoming active shapers and evangelists of the total experience customers have with your company. Because everything about your marketing will be smarter and better if it’s informed by how good (or not) of an experience you’re delivering to the people who use what you make.

Knowing who your most valuable customers are (and what they want from you) can be a game changer but figuring that out requires starting from a different place than the common launch of pad of personas or demographic profiles.  

As common as this narrow line of sight can be, the good news is there’s a whole bunch of actionable, customer learning work you can do to open up the field of view. Without breaking the bank or having to bring on lots of complicated systems to make your curiosity engine go.