Years ago our startup was acquired and I was promoted to lead the development team for the acquiring platform. Under the company’s successful growth the platform was falling over. Too many features too fast, with too many errors, and taking on too many functions.
As we were trying to assess and triage I had asked the team what sorts of problems customer service had been reporting. Shockingly none of the developers, save for perhaps the lead developer who was temporarily leading the team knew anyone in customer service, and even he only knew the two customer service leads.
Customer Service was a department that worked on the same floor as development. They were on the other side of the kitchen less than 150 feet away!
Shortly after hearing this I strongly encouraged and perhaps even mandated that developers start meeting with Customer Service and even sit in on customer phone calls. It was perhaps an uncomfortable experience or perhaps annoying or frustrating to do something that you don’t consider “your job”. But the team learned many small things about the customer experience that they wouldn’t have known since they previously didn’t have any contact with customers.
Information eventually gets through but it’s processed up through a chain into management that filters and distorts like broken telephone. Management can and should set overall priorities but important details are lost without direct communication.
Developers need to have empathy for the users of their software and in that particular case they should definitely have empathy for customer service. I’ve found that developers generally want people to enjoy using what they’ve built. They want it to be useful and they want the experience to be pleasant and productive. Unfortunately without direct or near direct feedback it’s not possible to tap into the emotional connection.
Sales, Marketing, Operations. All of these departments can also help broaden the understanding developers have on all product stakeholders and build better cohesion within the company.