Instead of general discovery, conduct "loss calls" with prospects who chose a competitor. This provides unfiltered feedback on what capabilities truly matter, where your product falls short, and whether your pricing or sales process—not just features—was the problem.

True problem agreement isn't a prospect's excitement; it's their explicit acknowledgment of an issue that matters to the organization. Move beyond sentiment by using data, process audits, or reports to quantify the problem's existence and scale, turning a vague feeling into an undeniable business case.

To save a struggling product launch, you cannot wait for quarterly reviews. Implement a rapid, monthly feedback loop to assess messaging perception and performance. This allows the entire cross-functional team to adjust the strategy and execution plan in real-time before negative market perception solidifies.

While customer feedback is vital for identifying problems (e.g., 40% of 911 calls are non-urgent), customers rarely envision the best solution (e.g., an AI voice agent). A founder's role is to absorb the problem, then push for the technologically superior solution, even if it initially faces resistance.

Go beyond inviting your best customers to workshops. Intentionally include mid-tier or even dissatisfied customers. Giving them a forum to solve problems makes them feel heard, often turning them into loyal advocates, while providing the company with ideas grounded in real, urgent needs.

Early customer feedback will be polarized, and this is normal. The key is to compare the 'hell yes' customers with the 'not unhappy' ones. Meaning emerges from this contrast, revealing the subtle differences that drive true product love and guide your roadmap.

The most valuable question a VC can ask a founder is, "Why are customers churning?" According to G2's Godard Abel, investigating what's not working provides the most critical insights for improvement. While founders naturally market successes, the real opportunity for growth and learning comes from understanding and addressing failures.

Raw customer feedback is noise. To make it actionable for Product, organize it along two dimensions: impact and frequency. This simple framework separates signal from noise, distinguishing high-priority, high-impact issues from niche requests and creating a clear basis for roadmap decisions.

AI is great at identifying broad topics like "integration issues" from user feedback. However, true product insights come from specific, nuanced details that are often averaged away by LLMs. Human review is still required to spot truly actionable opportunities.