We had our first users conference last week in Washington DC, with over 100 people attending from 28 states. For some, they spent more to travel & attend the conference than they do to use our system each year. A few things I learned:
- Team camaraderie matters. I was astounded by how many people came up to me over the course of the two day conference just to comment on how impressed they were with our team. One person said it looked like “one big family.” These people can now sleep easy knowing they can trust their business partners to move in the right direction. Furthermore, friction within a company ultimately injects friction into the end product and puts us at a competitive disadvantage. My takeaway, engineer your team with the same dedication that you engineer your product.
- Transparency matters. Make sure your customers understand your product roadmap, financial situation, and business plan (at least at a 30,000 foot level). Once they get where you’re going you can actually enlist their help to get you there, assuming they believe in what your doing.
- Listen for themes. It’s easy to get distracted by 100 people telling you what the would like to see your product do. The key is to look for themes, and remember that it’s also your job to build the things your users don’t know they need yet. Our themes included; better training, flexibility, scalability and speed of deployment.
- Find out what you’re doing wrong. This is the best opportunity possible to talk face to face with users about where your product is coming up short.
My advice, as soon as you think you’re ready for your first users conference, do it. The last two days we’re some of the most productive for everyone on our team, especially the engineers who aren’t in front of customers and prospects every day.