When I joined Amazon, I thought "customer obsession" meant saying "Yes" to every customer request. If a customer asked for a feature, I thought I must build it fast. I was wrong. I quickly learned the truth: good customer obsession is not about being a feature robot. Itโs about being like a detective ๐ต๏ธ and finding the real problem.
I learned that sometimes, when a customer asks for a "๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐," they don't just want a better horse. They probably need a ๐๐๐ซโor maybe even a ๐ฃ๐๐ญ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค!
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐๐ซ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ "๐๐ก๐ฒ?" This big lesson always came up in meetings. A customer would tell us about a pain point and suggest a solution. My first thought was always to start working on their solution.
But the best people at Amazon (Stefan Bradstreet and Anish Shah) taught me to pause. They taught me that before building anything, we must ask:
- "๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด?"
- "๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ?"
- "๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ช๐ค ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ?"
๐ ๐ข๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ ๐๐ซ "๐๐๐ฌ" The trick is not to focus on a single customer's small wish, but to understand the deeper problem. We must find a solution that helps many customers or teams, not just one.
As Carlos Arguelles a Senior Principal Engineer at Amazon, I admire, once shared with me
"๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ด. ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ด๐ฌ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ง๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ถ๐จ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐จ๐จ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ: ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ. ๐๐ข๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ '๐๐ฐ' ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ข๐บ '๐ ๐ฆ๐ด' ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บโ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด, ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ด๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค ๐ง๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด."
It means shifting from a "what do you want?" mindset to "what problem are we truly solving, and for how many people?" Saying "No" to a small, specific request often lets you say "Yes" to a much bigger, better idea.
Because sometimes, ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐ฌ๐ง'๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐. They need to ๐๐ฅ๐ฒ. And itโs our job to give them the ๐ค๐๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ซ. ๐