At FinovateFall earlier this month, I sat down with author Vivek Bedi who delivered a keynote presentation later that week, to gain some insights on the customer experience. Specifically, Bedi discussed how organizations can shift from a product focus to a customer focus.

See his answer below and watch the video in its entirety for more on how business leaders can make smart decisions and how the financial services industry can keep up with a continuously changing world.

We always talk about it, right? How do we actually do it? Being in product for 20 years, I’ve realized, “geez, the customer is so important.” And there are a few things I’m going to talk about tomorrow.

The first is how do we become customer obsessed? I know we say that term a lot, but how do we actually make that happen in practicality…. Nine out of ten times, we’re not even using our own product day in and day out. Somebody else is. So how do we become in their shoes? So it’s really important– when I say customer obsession– is how do we really become the customer; feel their challenges, feel their pains, and feel their struggle.

The second area [I’m going to focus on] is that all customers’ feedback matters. It is so easy for us to gravitate towards “the good.” The customers that are our cheerleaders saying that we’re doing a great job. What about the naysayers? I actually found myself obsessing over time on folks that don’t like my product. Why don’t they like it? Are they just grumpy, or is there something there that I’m missing? The point is really obsessing about all different parts of the product lifecycle.

To watch more video interviews from FinovateFall, check out FinovateTV on YouTube. And whether you were at the event in person or not, check out the highlights below: