Hey there! 👋
I’ve worked in marketing, product marketing, and even dipped into product management. Across all these roles, one thing has always been true: every company claims to care about their customers, but many actively avoid talking to them.
I’ve seen this play out in different ways. Some teams rely too much on quantitive data, some think they already know the customer, some only talk to the wrong people, and others do research so poorly that it might as well not have happened. But, regardless of the excuse, ignoring user research always costs more in the long run.
Here are four of the biggest internal blockers I’ve come across and how to work around them.
Most marketers and product teams are drowning in data. Website analytics, email metrics, social media insights, heatmaps, product telemetry—everything is measurable, trackable, and packaged up into a tidy dashboard.
So why would we talk to customers when we have all these numbers at our fingertips?
The problem is, quantitative data tells us what is happening, but not why. We can see where users drop off, which features they ignore, and which campaigns fall flat, but unless we ask real people what’s going on, we’re just guessing.
If your company is hesitant about qualitative research, start by positioning it as a quick, low-effort experiment.
This one is especially common in founder-led companies. In the early days, the CEO probably did know the customer better than anyone. But markets change, customer needs evolve, and what worked in year one doesn’t always work in year five.
I’ve worked at companies where leadership dismissed research because they “already knew the customer.” In one case, I conducted interviews to validate a new feature idea, and every single customer told me they didn’t want or need it. Leadership ignored the findings, pushed ahead anyway, and the feature was a failure.
Convincing a CEO they’re wrong is an uphill battle, but here are a few ways to shift the conversation:
That said, some leaders simply won’t change. If research is fundamentally devalued, you may have to pick your battles—or decide if it’s worth staying.
I’ve seen this happen a lot in enterprise companies and founder-led startups. Leadership thinks they’re doing research because they’re constantly talking to other execs and industry leaders. The problem? That’s not the same as talking to actual users.
I once worked at a company where senior leaders were constantly networking with other executives and gathering insights on industry trends. This gave them a great macro perspective. However, when we built features based on these conversations, they didn’t land because they weren’t addressing the daily pain points of actual users.
The good news? Leadership already values customer research. Now, it’s just about fine-tuning the approach.
Some companies invest heavily in research but miss key best practices, leading them down the wrong path. They gather insights, analyse data, and conduct interviews—yet when the product launches, it doesn’t land as expected.
I worked with a company that spent significant time developing a new product, backed by extensive external research. But when it launched, it struggled to achieve product-market fit.
After a while, I was asked to take a closer look. Through customer interviews and data analysis, it became clear that the issue wasn’t the product itself. It was misaligned positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategy due to gaps in the original research.
I’ve seen companies waste months (or years) building the wrong things simply because they didn’t take a few hours to talk to customers. The good news? You don’t need a massive research budget to start learning.
If you’re in a company where research is undervalued, pick your battles, but don’t burn yourself out trying to fix everything. The best approach? Start small, keep it practical, and show results fast.