Uncovering user pain points is the most guaranteed way to get your customers wanting more of what you've got, and you getting more of that $$bag. Fancy product management folks also call this process Product Discovery.
The biggest flop of any product team is building a glorious product that no one wants.
Product discovery and product delivery are the conjoined twins of true agile product development. To fumble one makes the effort put into the other inconsequential. At the core of every product discovery endeavour is this: What problem needs to be solved next?
The alchemy required to build a viral, successful product requires a concoction of listening to user feedback, interpreting the data you have correctly, borrowing aspects of a competitor product and a bit of fortune-telling (or luck).
Some of the ways we've seen companies eat a competitors lunch is when Twitter created Spaces rendering Clubhouse almost obsolete, and Google using G-Meet to bite a chunk out of Zoom's market share.
Other not-so-successful execution (so far) has been Instagram's attempt at turning into TikTok by 'borrowing' Reels and having their Head of Product get absolutely roasted online for insisting that that is what users wanted.
So, here's where to begin when discovering your users' pain points:
#1 - App Store/Play Store Reviews are a goldmine for discovery
When was the last time you checked to see what users actually say about your app? Several times I've gone to download an app I was curious about and abandoned project right before I hit the download button. Satisfied users don't say much, only gloriously delighted users or passionately pissed folks will take time to give a written review. Either way, that's an information point that can let you know what your users really like or really dislike.
What you do with that information depends on how committed you are to creating a product users enjoy using.
#2 - Sales team and Customer Success teams are the true gate-keepers for user insight
Blessed are thou if you work for a company that encourages and nurtures cross-functional collaboration. If you are the Product Manager, take Sally from Sales and Caleb from Customer Success out for lunch. Then ask them about some of the blockers they face when trying to sell or troubleshoot your product to end users.
Ask them both if you can sit in on their calls at least for an hour a week, or if you can accompany Sally to a sales pitch. Offer to be her secretary and just simply listen. Take copious amounts of notes.
You are likely to be mindblown when you figure out what matters most to your users, vis a vis what you thought they truly wanted. Most importantly, you will get the benefit of hearing your users' voice whenever you're about to make a product decision. You never want to lose the voice of the user as a product manager.
#3 - Get social- and do not forget Reddit.
I absolutely adore reddit when I'm looking for feedback regarding a tool I'd like to use. All I do is search for the tool in the reddit search bar and it will pull up everything people are saying about it. Reddit's anonymity helps foster unbridled honesty. That's a good thing.
Look at the comments you have on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.Your users will tell you what they like or do not like about your product. Twitter also allows you to do a sentiment analysis, see what folks feel about your brand. If you have a product and people use it, they WILL let you know whether you're hitting it or losing it. You need to know.
Sometimes it may sting reading about some of the reviews people are writing about what you're building. Lean into it. Remember, it's a worse tragedy having people not saying anything at all about you. Then, you might as well not exist.
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates.
#4 - Dig up the Data
If the gods are in your favour, your company uses robust analytics tools such as Mixpanel, Hotjar and Google Analytics to tell you how your product is doing. Some key metrics you'd want to keep your eye on are:
Daily Active Users, Monthly Active Users
Where users mostly drop off
What features are a fan favourite and which ones are cold and lonely
Time spent per session, etc
Any sharp rise or sudden plummet in these stats should lead to an investigation into the tech or a P.R gift or disaster . On the other hand, a subtle, sustained growth or decrease can also offer useful insights into user expectations, change in business climate, competitor (dis)advantage or business development. Either way, you're discovering what you need to do, keep doing, or stop doing for your product to remain competitive.
#5 - Pull out the notes from user interviews
It is quite unfortunate that any notes and videos collected by most product teams are left to gather dust in a cold, dark corner of Confluence (or whichever documentation tool is used).
Its a privilege to be able to hear directly from a user what they struggle with. If the interviews were well conducted, those notes could remain relevant over several product cycles. Keeping those notes well maintained, frequently updated and with relevant context added will help your team stay winning in customer-centricity.
#6 - Crowdsource ideas
Some of my favourite companies have publicly available feedback/suggestion boxes that allow users to recommend features that should be added to the product roadmap. Several documentation tools like Confluence and Notion allow you to create a public-facing recommendation box where your users can log requests.
Nothing gets you user insight as much as hearing directly and clearly from the user themselves. The more the requests for a specific feature, the more you need to listen up and figure out what problem your users are trying to solve with this specific feature. You may solve it for them with a different feature, but knowing that it needs solving is the first great step towards impactful product discovery.
Build something people want
Remember, nobody expects you as the PM to generate genius ideas or lead with a fortune-telling gut. Both would be nice; but even nicer, is getting such intimate knowledge of your users' needs and anticipating potential solutions that would delight them.
Being the 'voice of the user' is great responsibility. However, if this role is well executed in combination with great collaboration and people skills, you get to call yourself (quietly and privately) the 'CEO of the product' without cringing inside.