Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Stefan Stahl who has been leading product development teams for the better part of a decade. Stefan's approach to product development, which combines data-driven insights with a deep understanding of customer needs, offers valuable lessons for product leaders across industries. Here's what we discussed:
Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Stefan Stahl who has been leading product development teams for the better part of a decade. Stefan's approach to product development, which combines data-driven insights with a deep understanding of customer needs, offers valuable lessons for product leaders across industries. Here's what we discussed:
“I come from a mechanical engineering background and have spent the majority of my career electrifying various products across a variety of industries. I started at a large aerospace company and was extremely dissatisfied with the pace of innovation and the siloed style of development. I quickly learned that I thrived in a startup environment where each team member wears many - sometimes too many - hats and is existing in a constantly evolving role. You’re required to find as many efficiencies as possible to make do with the limited resources you have. It’s addicting! I’ve worked on everything from turbines to strollers and gained a broad perspective on making lives easier using technology.
I’ve spent the last 3 years building out and leading the product team at QuietKat, an off road utility eBike brand. Most recently, and since having my first child, I have started working with an electrified stroller wagon startup called Ellavate.
Product management is this beautiful balance where engineering meets business. I get to interface with the development teams, customers, and other in house stakeholders in order to plan, develop, and deliver the right product. I love working with small teams who are wearing many hats and getting a lot done with little resources. The pace of innovation at startups combined with the drive of the teams is what gets me excited to show up to work every day.”
"I like to think that there are three types of data as it relates to the customer. There's what you think they want based on personal experience, what they ask for through surveys and direct communication, and what they actually do. The disconnect between these can be quite striking.
To bridge this gap at QuietKat, we implemented IoT modules on the bikes. This allowed us to see how customers are actually using the products compared to what they say they want or need. For example, a customer might say they need a 100-mile battery range for massive hunts every weekend, but the data might show they're primarily using the bike for short trips around town. This first person, unbiased information influenced decisions about things like tire specifications, battery size, and overall bike capacity. We were aiming to balance the rugged, off-road image of our brand with the practical, everyday uses of our products.
I also place a huge emphasis on understanding the competitive set. If you don’t know what makes your product better or worse than the competition, you’re missing key info that could guide where to double down, explore new features, or remove features in favor of simplicity. Learning why the customer may be going to your competition can drive a lot about what their needs are and where you’re falling short."
"Connecting frequently and effectively with the CX team is a great way to learn the pain points of the customer. I prioritize regular debriefs to break down the types of issues we're seeing. After categorizing tickets into functional areas like electrical failures, shipping damage, etc., cataloging instances, and assigning severities, we can more easily identify trends and action items. For instance a change in packaging leading to increased damage during shipping.
I work with CX to assess whether these are valid concerns and prioritize them based on several factors:
1. How quickly is this problem going to escalate?
2. What's the development lift to fix it?
3. How big is the problem, really - will fixing this issue bring in new customers or keep existing ones happy?
My philosophy is that current customers are more important than potential ones. Keeping existing customers happy can lead to positive word-of-mouth, which is incredibly valuable.”
"I use a pretty simple decision matrix that considers these inputs:
1. What's the sales opportunity?
2. How difficult is the development and what's the tooling cost?
3. How soon do we need it?
4. Most importantly, is it on brand?
The brand question is crucial. I get a lot of suggestions for new products or features, but if they don't align with the brand, I’m not going to pursue them.”
"Since it’s the marketing team’s primary job to know and speak to the customer, I try to interface with them as much as possible. Leveraging their survey tools, especially at a DTC business, to stay in close contact with the customer drives a ton of golden product data insights. I find it incredibly valuable to be involved in the creation of post-purchase surveys and targeted surveys for specific user groups. Working together, we learn what features and benefits of the product resonate most with the end users. It’s a win-win: the marketing team can highlight these features in current material and the product team can use this to educate the roadmap for future developments.
As I mentioned earlier, the CX team is a great funnel into the challenges facing the product. Ensuring that this team knows you feel their pain and that you’re trying to improve the product to make their job easier goes a long way towards fostering a relationship where valuable data is passed both ways.
It’s also the sales team’s job to stay close to the customer and learn what problems they are trying to solve across the various use cases of their accounts. I try to download with sales teams frequently in order to get a ‘boots on the ground’ anecdotal take for what our customers are saying. ”
"Truly understanding your customer is the backbone of the product roadmap. It influences every aspect of the design. Crawl, walk, run is an extremely helpful tactic to test and validate this. Especially when it comes to hardware projects where you can sink major capital into tooling. You make educated guesses on product design, back up these hypotheses with customer feedback, and eventually confirm with real world data.
I’ll use an example, at QuietKat our research showed that many of our customers were not formerly cyclists. Therefore, we needed to take a bicycle and all its benefits and look at it through the lens of every single piece will likely be abused. So we made design choices to reduce maintenance needs without sacrificing functionality. These choices were validated by our ambassadors, other experts in the field, and most importantly the end users. With some confirmation that we were on the right track, we dove in.
In the newest line of performance hardtails, we replaced the traditional derailleur, derailleur hanger, and cassette with internal gearing. This maintains the functionality of multiple gears but eliminates components that are prone to damage or require frequent maintenance. We were able to keep the product performance similar while reducing the likelihood of a component failure."
So what did we learn?
1. Bridge the gap between what customers say and what they do: Use tools like IoT modules to gather real-world usage data and compare it to customer statements.
2. Prioritize existing customers: Focus on keeping current customers happy, as they can become powerful brand advocates.
3. Use a multi-factor decision matrix: Consider need, sales opportunity, development difficulty, timeline, and brand alignment when prioritizing improvements.
4. Collaborate across teams: Work closely with marketing, sales, customer support, and quality assurance to ensure a holistic approach to product development.
5. Simplify to improve: Sometimes, eliminating features or simplifying systems can lead to better overall product performance and customer satisfaction.
6. Design for your actual users: Understand that your customers may not be experts in your product category, and design accordingly.
7. Stay true to your brand: Even if an idea seems promising, always consider whether it aligns with your brand identity.
By applying these principles, companies can create products that not only meet customer needs but also align with business goals and brand identity. As Stefan put it, "It's a combination of weighing customer desires versus what they actually are using the product for placing the highest emphasis on value driving factors."