Scott Heimgartner

Ahead of roadmap planning. Part of your job is to bring market, competitor, and customer context that you have gathered through your research. Bring a different point of view - something that the product team doesn't already know. This earns you credibility and they'll be more apt to invite you to these discussions. If you don't have the domain knowledge yet - perhaps because you're new to the role - you still need to have visibility into the roadmap to be able to do your job effectively. If you're planning a major release or introducing a brand new product to the market, you'll want to be involved early and often.

Understand that surveys suck! Rarely do I hear customers say how much they love taking surveys. However, they are a necessary requirement to understanding pervasive challenges and needs of your customers. I usually follow a few rules of thumb: 1. Have a general hypothesis that you need to validate or have understanding of what you're trying to learn. Perhaps you're trying to understand why customers are churning. Or trying to validate the next set of features. Talk to a few customers to hear their challenges then use surveys to understand pervasiveness. 2. Do try to keep them short - unless you're providing them with an incentive, anything more than 10 questions and your inviting fatigue and your responses will reflect that. 3. Use logic in your surveys if you need layered questioning - trying to understanding drivers of satisfaction / dissatisfaction with your product, you'll need to ask layered questions to lead you to the aha. Having logic will help you move the respondent through an optimal path for feedback. 4. Ask for contact information for follow up. Leverage those that are willing to talk in greater detail about their experiences. Check out this link for some added insight into survey building - https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/10-tips-for-building-effective-surveys/