Does your product deliver on the expectation of your customers?

How often have you signed up for a product with certain expectations, only to find what you’re getting is different? I see this way too much. Just the other day I signed up for a product to help me get on top of my workload and organise my day. I couldn’t wait to dive in, but the product just didn’t deliver and I was soon back at square one looking for alternatives; the issue here is a lack of cohesion between marketing and product teams.

I’m sure that all of these products start with the best intentions. Nobody wants to mislead their customers, but a gap between what marketing promises and what product delivers grows over time. Before long, your marketing team is selling a dream that your product isn’t delivering on.

The best way to fix this is to look at the most basic functions of each team: marketing gets people through the door, and product keeps them in the room. Or, to look at it another way, marketing sets the expectation and product delivers.

If your marketing team is saying one thing to get people in the room, but your product doesn’t deliver on that, you’ll struggle to keep them in!

How do you get marketing and product on the same page?

Having your marketing and product teams in sync sounds like quite a simple concept, but as we only know, the theory is much easier than practice!

Here are a few tips on aligning your product and marketing teams so you can set the right expectation for what you will deliver for your customers:

Talk to your customers on a regular basis.
Make sure both your marketing and product teams are talking regularly with your customers and sharing the learnings and interpretations of where you can add the most value. These conversations will enable your teams to truly understand the needs of your customers. The language they use and most importantly, the importance of delivering a valuable experience.

Collaborate early and often.
Have marketing involved in the product/design process as early as possible. What usually happens here is the opposite, with marketing coming in right at the end of a project with a brief explanation as to what the product/feature does. For the marketing team to honestly communicate the value of a new feature or product, they need to really understand the problem that’s being addressed and the value it will bring to your customers.

Create an environment for marketing & product to thrive together.
In my mind, these are two sides of the same coin. If you can’t deliver on what you promise, then you’re doing your customers and team a disservice. Marketing and product should be in regular communication, sharing insights and ideas on how you can add more value to your customers.

If you liked this article you can follow me on Twitter for more insight on building your product around your customers.

Big thanks to Roy Opata Olende Ashley Read & James Morris for the edits!