Be Thy Customer

Tomorrow, I'll pack up my duffel, load up a rental car, and set out from Richmond, VA to Vail, CO with two of my team members to man Buddy's sponsor booth at the GoPro Games. If we were a big company or a pro team, we'd have shipped all of this stuff out weeks ago, but we are a startup, and it was a fortuitous opportunity that we're even able to participate as a sponsor, so we are doing it as cost-effectively as we can. 

Why? So that we can be with our customers! The GoPro Games are something that our team would want to do anyway, and we started Buddy to protect our fellow outdoor enthusiasts. What better way to get there than exactly how most of the participants will show up? 

When I'm participating in an event, I usually load my bike on the roof rack of my '01 Jeep and set out to whatever venue is hosting the race. I do my best to pack what I need, and I try to be self-sufficient and prepared for contingencies along the way. 

Sure, the Rocky Mountain locals will have a shorter drive, but it's important for me that we are empathetic to our audience's entire journey when it comes to their active lives. By traveling the path ourselves, we can unearth all of the facepalming "duh" moments that don't come through in analytics or user interviews and this will allow us to better serve Buddy's customers. 

Recently, I saw Health Warrior's CEO, Shane Emmett, speak on a panel. He was talking about his experiences launching new food products and how much time he spends sampling products in retailers like Whole Foods. Even as the leader of an established company (they were recently acquired by PepsiCo), Shane hands out the samples of his products and hears all the good, bad, and ugly feedback in person. This direct communication prevents sugar-coating and it can provide fast turnaround on what's working and what's not. 

I was reminded and inspired by Shane's words, and I think that in software-delivered businesses like Buddy, it's important to remember that you still have a real person on the other end of your product. As we pursue scale, the path to longevity is likely to be paved with lots of customer anthropology supported by data for extrapolating what's working and surfacing hypotheses about where there's room to improve. 

Luckily for us, this work is invigorating, and we would spend our time hanging around awesome events like the GoPro Games anyway. Now we have the added bonus of helping all the participants be a bit more fearless out there. 

If you're near Vail, CO on June 6-9, come visit us at the Buddy tent. And yes, we will be out there mixing it up in some of the events!