Using Customer Feedback To Shape Your Roadmap

Most teams guess what to build. We talk to 100s of prospects a month and let them tell us exactly what’s broken. In the early days of Salesforge, we knew one thing: The company that talks to the most customers the fastest… wins. That’s why we book 10–20 meetings a day not just to sell, but to learn faster than anyone else in our category. Every single day, we hear what prospects hate, where their current stack fails, what gets them excited, and what they wish existed. That learning compiles. It compounds. And over time, it becomes your strategic edge. Here are 4 lessons we’ve learned by doing this at volume and how it’s shaped how we build: 1. Feedback isn’t optional Most teams try to prioritize based on opinions, roadmaps, or investor pressure. We don’t. We let volume of feedback decide what gets built and what doesn’t. When you’re on 100+ calls a week, patterns become undeniable. If 6 out of 10 people mention the same workflow friction — we tag it, push it to product, and ship fast. Sometimes within a week. Without this level of signal clarity, you risk overbuilding, building in the wrong direction, or even worse — building something nobody wants. Velocity of feedback → velocity of learning → velocity of execution. 2. The best ideas don’t live on a whiteboard We’ve never treated the roadmap as a fixed blueprint. It’s a living document that adapts with every conversation. Some of our biggest wins started out as throwaway questions from prospects: “Can you guys do this?” “What if your agent could also handle that?” When you hear something like that three, four, five times in a single week, it’s no longer a fluke. It’s a market pull. We’ve built entire products like Warmforge and Leadsforge based on patterns that showed up first in conversations. Too many teams fall in love with their own ideas. We fall in love with patterns. 3. Repetition forces clarity or it exposes fluff If you’ve ever delivered the same pitch 50+ times in a week, you know one thing: you can’t fake it. If your messaging isn’t sharp, people will tune out. That’s the beauty of repetition. It either breaks your narrative or forces you to tighten it. Every meeting becomes a stress test for your story. 4. Geography matters more than you think One of the most underappreciated lessons we’ve learned from talking to prospects globally is just how different buyer behavior is by region. → Southeast Asia and LATAM? WhatsApp. → US? Email + cold call + LinkedIn → Europe? Email + cold call + LinkedIn + Whatsapp Without the conversations, we’d be shipping the wrong thing into the wrong market. TAKEAWAY Most teams optimize for pipeline. We optimize for learning velocity. That’s how you ship products people want. That’s how you write copy that converts. That’s how you build an agent that actually works in the wild. And the only way to do it? Listen harder. Track everything. Move fast. It’s messy. It’s unscalable. And it’s the reason we’re winning.

Your customers are telling you exactly how to fix your business right now. Most of you just aren't listening. You just had thousands of people pressure-test your product during the holiday rush. They found every weak point. They found every confusing instruction. Instead of waiting for the 1-star reviews to roll in, go to your Voice of the Customer dashboard. Look at the return reasons from the last 30 days. "Item too small" → Your listing photos need a size reference. "Hard to assemble" → Your manual is trash. Rewrite it. "Arrived broken" → Your packaging is too thin. This data is gold. It’s literally a roadmap for your 2026 product improvements. Don't guess what your customers want. Read what they are complaining about. Fix the product now, or you'll be fighting the same negative reviews in December 2026.

"Talk to customers" is classic startup advice. But not enough folks teach you how to talk to users in a way that gets you actual insights. Since launching Decagon and raising $100M over 3 rounds, we’ve learned a lot, especially about GTM. Here's how we've adapted our customer conversations to go beyond surface-level excitement and uncover real signals of value. We benchmark around dollars when discussing product features. Why? Because it’s easy to run a customer interview where the customer seems thrilled about a new idea we have. But excitement alone doesn’t tell you if a piece of feedback is truly valuable. The only way to find out is to ask the hard questions: → Is this something your team would invest in right now? → How much would you pay for it? → What’s the ROI you’d expect? Questions like these don’t allow for generic answers—they'll give you real clarity into a customer's willingness to pay. For example: say you float a product idea past a potential user. They're stoked by it. Then you ask how much they'd pay for said product—and the answer is $50 per person for a 3-person team. Is that worth building? It might be, depending on the outcome you're shooting for. But if your goal is to build an enterprise-grade product, that buying intent (or lack thereof) isn't going to cut it. If you'd stopped the interview at the surface-level excitement, you might have sent yourself on a journey building a product that isn't viable. By assessing true willingness to pay you can prioritize building what users find valuable versus what might sound good in theory. Get to the dollars as quickly as you can. It’s an approach that has helped us align our roadmap with what customers truly need and ensure we’re building a product that has a measurable impact.

I’m not asking my CSMs to resolve support tickets. I’m asking them to leverage them. Support tickets aren’t just a backlog of problems; they’re customer truth bombs waiting to explode. If you’re not mining them for insights, you’re flying blind—and that’s exactly how churn sneaks up on you. Every Customer Success team I’ve ever led has been trained to use Support tickets strategically. Why? Because they’re packed with insights that make us better at our jobs. ✅ We learn more about the product. ✅ We spot trends before they become problems. ✅ We understand our customers’ use cases more deeply. If you’re not tapping into support data, here’s what you’re missing: �� Emerging Pain Points Recurring issues expose friction in the customer journey. Ignore them, and those minor frustrations turn into churn-worthy headaches. 🔥 Product Gaps Customers vote with their tickets. If the same feature requests or usability complaints keep surfacing, your roadmap is practically writing itself. 🔥 Engagement Risks A spike in tickets isn’t just noise—it’s a flare. Users don’t submit tickets when they’re thriving; they do it when they’re stuck, frustrated, or in need of more enablement. Here are a few ways my team and I are using these insights: ✅ Spot & Engage Struggling Users A surge in ticket volume? Proactively reach out before frustration turns into a cancellation. ✅ Create Targeted Content If the same questions keep coming up, turn those insights into help docs, webinars, or office hours. ✅ Surface Expansion Opportunities Seeing frequent feature requests? Build them—or better yet, use them to tee up expansion conversations. ✅ Map Out User Behavior Support tickets tell you who’s onboarding, who’s adopting new features, and who’s stuck. Use that data to drive deeper engagement. ✅ Collaborate with Product Your product team needs this intel. Share support trends regularly to influence meaningful fixes and features. High ticket volume isn’t necessarily a bad thing—but you need to know how to use it to your advantage. Bottom line? CSMs don’t need to fix support tickets. But the best ones know how to use them to drive retention, expansion, and adoption. _____________________________ 📣 If you liked my post, you’ll love my newsletter. Every week I share learnings, advice and strategies from my experience going from CSM to CCO. Join 12k+ subscribers of The Journey and turn insights into action. Sign up on my profile.

Every company says they listen to customers. But most just hear them. There's a difference. After spending years building feedback loops, here's what I've learned: Feedback isn't about collecting data. It's about creating change. Most companies fail at feedback because: - They send random surveys - They collect scattered feedback - They store insights in silos - They never close the loop The result? Frustrated customers. Missed opportunities. Lost revenue. Here's how to build real feedback loops: 1. Gather feedback intelligently - NPS isn't enough - CSAT tells half the story - One channel never works Instead: - Run targeted post-interaction surveys - Conduct deep-dive customer interviews - Analyze product usage patterns - Monitor support conversations - Build customer advisory boards - Track social mentions 2. Create a single source of truth - Consolidate feedback from everywhere - Tag and categorize insights - Track trends over time - Make it accessible to everyone 3. Turn feedback into action - Prioritize based on impact - Align with business goals - Create clear ownership - Set implementation timelines But here's the most important part: Close the loop. When customers give feedback: - Acknowledge it immediately - Update them on progress - Show them implemented changes - Demonstrate their impact The biggest mistakes I see: Feedback Overload: - Collecting too much data - No clear action plan - Analysis paralysis Biased Collection: - Listening to the loudest voices - Ignoring silent majority - Over-indexing on complaints Slow Response: - Taking months to act - No progress updates - Lost customer trust Remember: Good feedback loops aren't about tools. They're about trust. Every piece of feedback is a customer saying: "I care enough to help you improve." Don't waste that trust. The best companies don't just collect feedback. They turn it into visible change. They show customers their voice matters. They build trust through action. Start small: 1. Pick one feedback channel 2. Create a clear process 3. Act quickly on insights 4. Show results 5. Scale what works Your customers are talking. Are you really listening? More importantly, are you acting? What's your approach to customer feedback? How do you close the loop? ------------------ ▶️ Want to see more content like this and also connect with other CS & SaaS enthusiasts? You should join Tidbits. We do short round-ups a few times a week to help you learn what it takes to be a top-notch customer success professional. Join 1999+ community members! 💥 [link in the comments section]

A customer asked us a question last year that changed our entire product strategy. "Why do I need another portal?" We'd built what we thought was a great AI agent interface. Polished. Powerful. Modern. The CTO looked at it and said: "My employees already have portal fatigue. They won't adopt another login." It stung. But he was right. Enterprise employees have CRM portals. ERP portals. HRIS portals. Intranet portals. Now you want them to adopt an AI portal too? So we built something different. Headless architecture. The AI agent brain without the mandatory body. Option 1: Use our full interface when it makes sense. Option 2: Embed our AI agent capabilities directly into the portals employees already use. Same agents. Same governance. Their existing UI. The same AI brain. Different bodies. The insight wasn't technical. It was empathetic. We were building for what we thought users needed. The customer taught us to build for how users actually work. Now "headless or full-stack?" is one of our first architecture questions. Not because we invented the concept. Because a frustrated CTO taught us to see differently. The best product insights don't come from roadmap planning sessions. They come from customers who tell you uncomfortable truths. The feedback that hurts most often matters most. #ProductManagement #CustomerFeedback #Startup #EnterpriseAI #AIAgents #FounderLessons

A customer once told me: 'We're not just buying your product —we're betting on your ability to help us succeed and grow over time.'" That comment challenged me to think differently, and it still does each today. It came up during one of my regular customer check-ins. The kind where we’re not solving fires — but stepping back and asking, “What's working well? What's not? What’s next for you?” And the answer surprised me (but shouldn't have!) They of course had some concerns about today’s pain points. But more importantly, with how fast the world is changing and the level of embedded uncertainty, they were even more thinking 6–12 months ahead: ➡ How will our strategy evolve? ➡ What help do we need today that sets us up for more wins in the future? ➡ What will we need from you then that we’re not even asking for now? It was a wake-up call and a great reminder of that quote from years ago. Our current onboarding (and broader post-sales motion) focused too much on narrow current needs — not on future ones. And in today’s pace of change, that’s not enough. So we shifted: ✅ Start every engagement (for more customer segments) by co-creating a future-state vision ✅ Build our roadmap around where they’re going, not just where they are ✅ Check in on that vision — regularly The impact? Stronger partnerships. Stickier outcomes. More trust. How are you helping your customers grow into the future, not just succeed in the present?

Your Product Managers are talking to customers. So why isn’t your product getting better? A few years ago, I was on a team where our boss had a rule: 🗣️ “Everyone must talk to at least one customer each week.” So we did. Calls were scheduled. Conversations happened. Boxes were checked. But nothing changed. No real insights. No real impact. Because talking to customers isn’t the goal. Learning the right things is. When discovery lacks purpose, it leads to wasted effort, misaligned strategy, and poor business decisions: ❌ Features get built that no one actually needs. ❌ Roadmaps get shaped by the loudest voices, not the right customers. ❌ Teams collect insights… but fail to act on them. How Do You Fix It? ✅ Talk to the Right People Not every customer insight is useful. Prioritize: -> Decision-makers AND end-users – You need both perspectives. -> Customers who represent your core market – Not just the loudest complainers. -> Direct conversations – Avoid proxy insights that create blind spots. 👉 Actionable Step: Before each interview, ask: “Is this customer representative of the next 100 we want to win?” If not, rethink who you’re talking to. ✅ Ask the Right Questions A great question challenges assumptions. A bad one reinforces them. -> Stop asking: “Would you use this?” -> Start asking: “How do you solve this today?” -> Show AI prototypes and iterate in real-time – Faster than long discovery cycles. -> If shipping something is faster than researching it—just build it. 👉 Actionable Step: Replace one of your upcoming interview questions with: “What workarounds have you created to solve this problem?” This reveals real pain points. ✅ Don’t Let Insights Die in a Doc Discovery isn’t about collecting insights. It’s about acting on them. -> Validate across multiple customers before making decisions. -> Share findings with your team—don’t keep them locked in Notion. -> Close the loop—show customers how their feedback shaped the product. 👉 Actionable Step: Every two weeks, review customer insights with your team to decipher key patterns and identify what changes should be applied. If there’s no clear action, you’re just collecting data—not driving change. Final Thought Great discovery doesn’t just inform product decisions—it shapes business strategy. Done right, it helps teams build what matters, align with real customer needs, and drive meaningful outcomes. 👉 Be honest—are your customer conversations actually making a difference? If not, what’s missing? -- 👋 I'm Ron Yang, a product leader and advisor. Follow me for insights on product leadership + strategy.

A VP of Product asked a product ops leader on their team a simple question: “What’s your vision for product ops?” She responded with a laundry list of fixes: ➡ “Revamp the intake form” ➡ “Clean up our Jira workflows” ➡ “Streamline roadmap meetings” Useful? Sure. Strategic? Not quite. Too often, product ops focuses on the to-do list instead of the strategy. How do you shift from checklists to strategy? Here’s how we shifted her mindset. Anchor your ops work in the company’s product strategy. I coached this leader to zoom out. We revisited the org’s actual product strategy. One pillar jumped out: Improve customer sentiment. Scores were dipping. Morale was waning. 🏅 Buried in a roadmapping tool was a goldmine: 3,000+ pieces of untouched customer feedback. That insight unlocked real company value. She didn’t need a better form. She needed a better system—one that surfaced relevant feedback to PMs at the right time and in the right context. By focusing on closing the loop, PMs could identify roadmap gaps based on real user insights. 🔐 Product ops wasn’t just managing process. She was unlocking strategy execution. 👉 This is the real power of product ops: reducing the friction between ambition and delivery. 🎙️ I dive deeper into this story—and how to make your ops function a strategy enabler—on the Talking Roadmaps podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. (and I’ll drop the link below) How are you tying your ops work back to product strategy? I’d love to hear your approach. ** ❤️ I coach product leaders on how to build high-performing teams. ✏️ Subscribe to my newsletter at https://lnkd.in/gMhUnXih 🛎️ Follow me here on LinkedIn for more stories about improving product culture.

I've seen too many enterprise software companies get caught with customers in the 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽: • Promise too much = lose focus • Listen too little = lose trust I was super lucky to have two incredibly product-minded co-founders in Ted and Joshua. Of the many things I learned from them, one that has really stuck with me is that while customers understand their pain points better than anyone, they're not best positioned to solve that pain - they're too close to it and just don't have as many data points across variants of that pain, resulting in a failure of imagination as to the optimal solution. Customer feedback is absolute gold, but that doesn't mean every nugget should get directly translated into the product roadmap. The topic came up during the AMA after our Logicbroker All Hands last week - here's what I shared with my team:  1. 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 - Make sure the customer is heard and build a 3D model of their pain in your head by probing into the granular details of what they're dealing with 2. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 - Thank them for the feedback and communicate how this will inform related product research as we work towards an optimal solution 3. 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Have we already solved this pain point, but in a counterintuitive way? Educate the customer on how other clients are successfully handling this today. Encourage them to try it out and share back additional feedback to round out our understanding 4. 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 - Advocate for clients by employing methodologies like RICE (Reach x Impact x Confidence / Effort) to map feedback to prospective projects in a structured way that will automatically reprioritize initiatives as incremental data points are collected over time  5. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝗽 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 - In subsequent client QBRs, share new learnings around initiatives their feedback has matured. Be transparent about where they fall in the company's priorities and update on new related releases that may partially address their original pain point  Valuing customer feedback and protecting the product roadmap are not mutually exclusive. These two goals are inherently intertwined and mutually reinforcing. Building every client request will degrade the product, but ignoring client feedback will also degrade the product - it's a fine balance. Customers don't need a 'yes' - they need to be able to trust that you're listening and leading with purpose.