Why ‘Understanding Customers’ Trumps ‘Talking to Customers,’ According to Shreyas Doshi

In a recent LinkedIn post, Shreyas Doshi challenges the conventional business wisdom of “talk to customers,” particularly within top-tier companies. Doshi argues that the common practice often devolves into a superficial exercise focused on confirmation rather than genuine learning, leading to flawed product development and strategy.

Doshi highlights a critical flaw in how many employees in large organizations approach customer interactions. Instead of seeking unbiased insights, they often engage in conversations with a pre-existing agenda.

“The main problem with the “talk to customers” mantra in *top tier companies* is that the vast majority of your people who talk to customers are going into customer conversations for confirmation & performative heroics and not for learning & insight.”

This tendency, according to Doshi, leads to a biased interpretation of feedback. Employees may selectively focus on comments that validate their existing beliefs and ignore contradictory information. This curated information is then presented to leadership in a way that appeals to executive desire for neat, easily digestible findings, rather than a true reflection of customer sentiment.

The Confirmation Bias Trap

Shreyas Doshi posits that this issue is deeply rooted in human psychology, affecting even highly intelligent individuals. The innate drive for validation often supersedes the more challenging pursuit of market success.

“There is no great solution to this problem, because most people, including >80% of highly intelligent people (in any company), are just wired to seek confirmation & validation. They are not wired with the desire to win in the market (even though everyone is sure they are),” Doshi writes.

This pervasive confirmation bias means that even well-intentioned customer outreach efforts can fall short of their intended purpose. The data gathered may not be representative, leading to decisions that are out of sync with genuine market needs.

Shifting the Mantra: From Talking to Understanding

To counteract this, Doshi proposes a fundamental shift in corporate mantras. He suggests that companies should prioritize “understand customers” over “talk to customers.” This subtle change in language, he argues, signifies a much higher standard of engagement and insight generation.

“‘Understanding’ is a much higher bar than ‘talking’, and that is precisely the kind of high bar a top-tier company must meet,” Doshi emphasizes. Talking is perceived as a relatively simple action, whereas true understanding requires deeper analysis, critical thinking, and an open mind to potentially disconfirming evidence.

Leadership’s Role in Fostering Understanding

Doshi places significant responsibility on leadership to cultivate a culture of genuine customer understanding. He believes the most effective solution involves leaders actively embodying and championing this principle.

“And the best solution is leading from the top by yourself embodying what understanding customers truly means and holding an extremely high bar for insight that’s presented to you as the leader.”

Leaders, Doshi advises, must not only set high standards for their teams but also critically examine their own practices. He suggests that leaders should reflect on whether their current actions and the insights they demand truly align with the ambition they hold for their teams and companies. The success of recent product launches and features can serve as a metric for the effectiveness of customer understanding within an organization.

Ultimately, Shreyas Doshi encourages leaders to introspect and identify their own shortcomings in achieving the ideal of deep customer understanding, framing it as the crucial first step toward driving meaningful market success.