When I worked
in New Business Development
for a major beverage company,
we would spend time
every year
with the customer.
Not to sell them anything.
Not to talk about our products.
We would spend time
following our customer around
as she went through her normal day.
We would do this
with our immediate customers,
the stores we sold into,
following,
for example,
the employee who stocked
the shelves.
And we would do this
with our final customers,
following,
for example,
the mom of two
as she went through
a typical shopping trip.
Knowing our customers
allowed us
to better design our products
to make them happy.
Consider living
like your customer
for a day.