My favorite way of understanding if teams are wearing the customers’ shoes is to walk around and ask developers what customer problem they’re working on. If they tell me a feature, then I ask what customer problem it’s solving. If they can’t answer it, then that’s a sign that the team might not be building enough connection with customers. You can do this, too—it’s easy. Another thing to ask your developers: during product reviews, start the conversation with the customer problem. Don’t jump right into talk of strategy or features, but start with why the customer will care. Ask your leaders
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