The Power of Observing and Talking to Real Humans

Although Good Boss, Bad Boss focuses more squarely on the relationship between bosses and their immediate charges, one of the main themes of the book -- following a design-thinking view of the world -- is that the best bosses go to great lengths to develop empathy for both the people they lead and the customers served by their teams and organizations.  Managers and executives sometimes tell me that just looking at sales statistics, aggregated demographics stats, and -- now and then -- reading compilations of customer complaints and compliments is all they need to do to understand their customer's needs.  There is no need to go out and waste their time watching and talking to customers or potential customers first hand.  

I am all for quantitative data, but there is a story in Chapter 5 of  Good Boss, Bad Boss that I believe shows there is no substitute for the power of first hand observation:

When bosses make concerted efforts to understand what it feels like to be a customer, it is remarkably useful for making gaps between knowledge and action vivid and identifying possible repairs.  To illustrate, SYPartners (SYP), an innovation firm based in San Francisco and New York, worked with up-and-coming executives from a big company to develop new financial services for immigrants. The executives arrived with armloads of binders packed with data-rich PowerPoint decks –and were excited about how well they had mastered the charts and statistics.  They got nervous when SYP told them they weren’t going to use that stuff, and instead, would be shadowing customers.   

SYP broke the team into trios, assigned each a Spanish-speaking translator and Spanish-speaking undocumented worker, and sent them out into the Mission District in San Francisco.  Each team was asked to cash a check in a bank, wire money to a Central American country at Western Union, and observe the undocumented worker do the same things.  Before the observations, these executives knew from their quantitative data that these untapped customers represented a huge opportunity.  But their impressions of what these customers wanted – and would happily pay for – were far off the mark. The shadowing, hands-on efforts, and discussions with undocumented workers provoked them to transform and broaden the offerings they suggested to their firm.  One executive called it “life-changing” and said he would never look at a marketing opportunity the same again.  The executive who initially felt most uncomfortable about following around an illegal immigrant came away most transformed  – arguing adamantly that reams of data aren’t enough, that you need to understand what your customers do and how it feels to do be them.

In other words, the best bosses know what it feels like to work for them and what it feels like to be one of their customers too!  The closer you can get to an unvarnished and uncensored perspective of the humans that you lead an serve, the better you can understand their needs and what you can do to feel those needs.

P.S.  Toward that end, a couple years back I was talking to an executive from a major airline about how crummy the experience was of flying coach -- how everything from the legroom to the rude staff made it an awful experience. He dismissed my complaint, but eventually admitted that it had been years since he flew coach on any airline.   Perhaps that is one reason that Southwest has stayed so successful for so long -- there are no first class seats for their executives hide in!

Comments

[Simple Chief]

Nice Post, thank you. I think it's generally true that we can't consider everybody's feelings and perspectives all the time -- it's a coping mechanism to make sure we get our own stuff done. Because of this it is always a powerful eye-opener to walk in someone else's shoes for a while...

[David W.]

So simple and so true. I agree with Kenneth, "the only way to get feedback is to walk a mile in their shoes. Thanks for the article.

[Kenneth]

Bob,

Your blog rings true. How is one going to get documented feedback or comments from an undocumented or non-english speaking customer. The only way to get feedback is to walk a mile in their shoes. I liked your PS about the airlines. It is so easy for senior management to become insulated from what their customers experience.

[Glenn Friesen]

Word.

With so many "remote observation" and "crowd analytics" tools available nowadays, it seems like there's more noise between the CEO and the customer than ever before.

As an advocate for anthropological observation of "the customer in the field", I've unfortunately never been able to actually make it happen. I assume this is because I have worked with small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) who are convinced they don't have the budget for observation, longitudinal or otherwise.

How would once convince an SMB executive of the value of in-field anthropological observation of their customer?

Further, I believe that no anthropological observation of a customer is of much explicit value. The study would have to include several, if not several dozen, individual observations to be valid. Though, as your example demonstrates, there is the implicit value of the subject opening their mind, or changing their mindset.

Thanks. Your post was definitely thought-provoking!

[Sarah]

I love this post- it makes me think of my immediate supervisor at work, who I can say without hesitation is the best boss I have ever had. He used to do a job very similar to mine at the same company, so he knows exactly what it's like. I've had a few different positions at this company, but this manager is the first one who has made me feel like he is really looking out for the team, trying to shield us from the bureaucratic crap that flows from upstream, has been forthcoming with information and completely trusts us to do our jobs without micromanaging. He may not be the best at replying to emails or scheduling meetings (nobody's perfect), but I think his personal understanding of the team's job helps him to do those truly important things and be one of the most desirable managers at the company.

[Keith McDonnell]

I couldn't agree more. In starting a company with my wife my only "condition" was that we have THE best customer service. So far that has been non stop engagement and listening to the customer.

[Greg]

great blog Bob, If more bosses knew how it felt to be an employee and a customer, they could decrease turnover and market to thing that customers actually need. This should never be overlooked

[Dana Searcy]

Great blog Bob! I agree that too many people do not realize that they do not know how it feels to be in someone else's shoes...or even worse, they are convinced they do know, when they don't. I think we are all guilty of this in some aspects of our lives. It is the concept of things are always greener on the other side. In business especially, this can be costly.

[davidburkus]

Your airline executive example is a sad truth. You can see the same thing with GM cars (executives had theirs serviced almost daily) and with commuter rail-lines (the one that the majority of executives road on got the most attention). It's almost as if they're admitting that the organization doesn't exist for the customer...but for them.

[Jenny]

Great piece, Bob. Personally, I think most people completely underestimate the importance of empathy. We constantly hear people nattering on about the importance of being "authentic" these days and yet they behave as if they have no empathy for their customers or for those they work with.

The great thing about empathy is that, unless a person has some type of emotional or personality disorder or a diagnosed mental illness which precludes its development, it is a learned behaviour and your description of the results of the shadowing proves this in spades - thanks!