Close the laptop. Get closer to your customer.

Get Closer. Stay Curious. Make the Call.

The best product decisions aren’t made behind your computer screen. They’re made in front of your customer.

When building Belkin’s education business from scratch, we had plenty of thoughtful conversations about what EdTech solutions schools needed. But discussing the classroom wasn’t the same as being in one, watching students interact with what we were creating.

Our design teams brought ambitious ideas about the experience. Engineering and commercial teams emphasized durability, cost, and practicality. Everyone cared about getting it right. Each was protecting something important.

To work through those priorities, I organized school visits and prototype feedback sessions where designers and engineers could observe students and teachers using early concepts in their natural environments.

We weren’t there to defend our ideas. We were there to see where they held up—and where they didn’t.

Get a shared view of the customer

What made sense to students? What created friction? Which assumptions needed another look?

Those observations gave us a shared reference point. We could connect design choices to actual classroom use, then evaluate them alongside manufacturing constraints, reliability requirements, and cost.

Customer evidence didn’t eliminate the trade-offs. It gave us a better basis for making them.

That distinction has stayed with me. When a product debate stalls, I ask:

• What user insight supports each option—and where are we making assumptions?

• How would each choice affect the customer’s experience?

• What could we observe or test together to make a better decision?

The goal isn’t to make one function’s argument stronger. It’s to ground the discussion in a shared understanding of the people we’re trying to help.

But getting in front of the customer is only part of the work.

Be willing to change your mind

A customer visit can challenge your assumptions. It can also become a way to reinforce them.

It’s easy to return with a few observations that support your favorite idea while giving less attention to the ones that don’t.

Before a visit or prototype session, write down:

• What do we believe?

• What would challenge that belief?

• What decision could change as a result?

Afterward, separate what you observed from what you inferred.

“The student struggled with the prototype” is an observation.

“The student needs more instructions” is an interpretation.

Maybe the instructions need work. Maybe the product does. You need more evidence to distinguish between them.

That pause matters. Jumping too quickly from behavior to explanation can turn a valuable observation into the wrong requirement.

The point of customer research isn’t to collect proof that you were right. It’s to give yourself a credible reason to reconsider.

Turn the learning into a decision

Even a useful insight has limited value if it never affects what happens next.

Ask: What will we do differently because of what we learned?

The answer might be to change a requirement, rework a prototype, test a risky assumption, or stop pursuing an idea the evidence no longer supports.

Sometimes the right decision is to keep the original direction. But you should be able to explain why—including how you weighed the evidence that challenged it.

In our classroom work at Belkin, observations helped design, engineering, and commercial teams evaluate choices together. They didn’t relieve us of the responsibility to choose.

We still had to balance the customer experience with durability, cost, and what we could manufacture.

To close that loop, make three things explicit:

• What did we learn?

• Which decision does it affect?

• What happens next—and who owns it?

A customer visit isn’t the outcome. A better-informed decision is.

Spreadsheets, presentations, and healthy debate all have a place. They become more useful when grounded in firsthand understanding—and when that understanding reaches the requirements, tests, and investment choices that shape the product.

Before building a stronger argument, get closer to the people you’re building for.

Then let what you learn influence what you do.

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