Voice of the Customer: The Evergreen Engine for Product Development

Hi everyone, I’m Brownie, a Product Manager (PdM) at Money Forward (MFV). I manage payroll product/ payroll system for the Japanese market. My blog covers Product Management practice within MFV, also explores broader industry practices focused on solving genuine user pain points.

As a PdM, you wear many hats, but your primary job is simple: keep the product relevant.

Have you ever looked at your roadmap and wondered, “Are we actually building what our users want, or are we just building what we think they want?” In Product Management, it’s remarkably easy to get lost in your own assumptions. But a great product isn’t built without improvement. It’s guided by a treasure map called VoC—the Voice of the Customer. 

What is VoC?

VoC represents the collected feedback, needs, and expectations of your real customers. It is what they are telling you about your product, often quite loudly. If you know how to decode it, VoC points you directly to what is valuable, what is broken, and where to find the product “gold.”

Where to Harvest VoC: Three Key Channels

As a PdM at MFV, you have at least three resources to mine this data. Each provides a unique perspective on the user journey:

1. The Sales Team: Think of them as "problem-listeners." They hear the objections and feature requests that win or lose a deal before the user even signs up. This data is critical for understanding market acquisition and early-stage value.
2. Support & Success Teams: These teams handle the "I'm stuck!" and "How do I?" messages every day. They are the premier experts on daily user pain points, bugs, and minor frustrations.
3. Direct Customer Feedback: This is where you jump onto user calls and interviews. Getting unfiltered access allows you to hear raw needs firsthand and, most importantly, ask "Why?"

Does this guarantee you have found the next breakthrough? Not necessarily. Here is how to filter the noise.

Knowing Who (and What) to Listen To

You’ve heard it before: "Hey PdM, can you add this feature?" or “The competitor has this function; why don't you?”

Amidst the influx of feedback, you must stay focused, or you’ll fall into analysis paralysis.

Example 1: Target vs. Non-Target

• Target: Our application serves Professional Project Managers. They request Git repository webhook integration for automated workflows. Because this aligns with our core mission, we prioritize it.
• Non-Target: The same user group requests fun sticker packs or personal calendar syncs. We recognize that while these are "nice-to-haves," they do not align with our core value proposition for professional users, so they are not a priority.

Example 2: Listen for the Pain, Not the Solution

Customers often ask for superficial improvements, such as "We need 10 new filters and more drop-down menus in the search bar." However, after targeted A/B tests, your analytics show users trying five different search terms before leaving, and you've discovered "invisible friction." The solution isn't adding filters; it's implementing intelligent keyword matching. Solve the pain, not just the requested feature.

When VoC Contradicts Data

• Experience 1: The Trap of Stated Intent

In a fitness app survey, 90% of users said they wanted a calorie tracker and promised to use it daily. We built it. Analytics showed 95% of those users stopped using it after two days. Why? Tracking calories is time-consuming. Users thought they wanted a feature to feel healthy, but the effort required was a barrier they hadn't anticipated.

• Experience 2: The "Silent" Effort

In Vietnam, many merchants use cash. If they take five payments, they manually track them, becoming fatigued by the repetition. It’s an "unaware pain", they’ve grown used to it. When digital wallets introduced a payment-confirmation speaker, it solved a problem merchants didn't even know they could fix.

• Lesson: Minimize effort to maximize value. Sometimes, removing friction generates a "Wow!" moment even if the user never explicitly asked for it.

How to Prioritize: Building the Right Features

Trick 1: The "Papercut" Matrix vs  "Grave Wound"

• High-Frequency Papercuts: Minor annoyances (e.g., confusing button text). If a massive volume of users complain, fix it as a "quick win" to build goodwill when you have team capacity.
• Grave Wounds: Critical, deal-breaking issues (e.g., "Payment fails on iOS"). Even if only five users report it, this is your #1 priority. If users cannot use the core product, stop everything and fix it.

Trick 2: Must-Haves vs. Wow-Factors (The Kano Model)

• Must-Haves: Foundational features customers expect (e.g., a working password reset). They won't thank you for them, but they will be furious if they are missing.
• Wow-Factors: Unexpected innovations customers don't know they need yet but will love once they have them (e.g., AI-driven personalization and localization).

Trick 3: The "Easy Reach" Trick (Impact vs. Effort)

• The Mountain of Effort: High development effort for low user benefit. Delay these unless they are tied to a strategic, top-tier client.
• Low-Hanging Fruit: Low development effort, high impact (e.g., updating a broken, high-traffic FAQ link). Do these first to clear the support queue and maintain team momentum.

Summary

Even a massive VoC pool is just a raw resource; it is not, by itself, a roadmap. As a PdM, you must align customer feedback with your product vision to respond to what the future requires. Finally, always use data to verify true user behavior against what they say they want. That is how we move value forward at Money Forward Vietnam.

Happy building.