Users are experts in their jobs, not your product.

U-Haul is a great example.

U-Haul’s users are not professional movers.

They are trying to save money by doing the job themselves.

The moving box was once an underutilized communication channel. But U-Haul saw it as an opportunity to help their users learn what professional movers know about loading a truck.

It’s a simple graphic, but holds the power to avoid support hours, broken goods, insurance claims, and other mishaps a non-professional might encounter.

A product’s go-to-market strategy can empower the customer.

Opportunities to empower the customer begin early in the purchase cycle, far before the unboxing or product on-boarding. Users are trying to learn. They retain information through every sales, marketing, and customer success touch point they engage with. When we consider buying a product, we form expectations for how it can help us do a job, and we carry those expectations into the user experience.

When we consider buying a product, we form expectations for how it can help us do a job, and we carry those expectations into the user experience.

On my team at Hudl, product managers lead dedicated Release Teams to align go-to-market strategy with product strategy. This team is accountable for the end-to-end experience that prepares the customer for success, and makes users feel like they got what they paid for.

When products fail to create value for users, we failed to do our job.

If the product manager is accountable for user value, it’s important that product leaders are accountable for alignment across a go-to-market strategy. By partnering with teams across the business, product teams can drive more alignment with front lines communication and ultimately, with users.

How can you rally your product and go-to-market teams around an experience that lets customers focus on their jobs, not yours?

Have you ever used a Release Team? If you’d like to hear how they’ve worked for me, I’d love to chat with you.