Customer empathy in action

I couldn’t resist the urge of writing a few lines on an article titled “Minister gets alarming dose of a ‘pathetic’ Whitefield” that captured my attention published in “Bangalore Mirror” on 13th of January 2015. All kudos to “Whitefield Area Infrastructure Development Alliance (WAIDA) convenor” for asking Honorable Transport minister to ride with him sans police escorts, high security patrol cars and green lights. Through this initiative the honorable minister got a taste of what a common man goes through on his day to day commute. This is customer empathy in action, though the minister was forced to empathize with the customer. Imagine if all the babus of the nation once in a while do what a common man would do like:

● Standing in a mile long queue in a fair priced shop to procure provisions

● Use the public transport to get a feel of what a commuter goes through, what the bus conductor or driver goes through

Possibilities are unlimited and surely India would be a better place to live.

Empathy or walking in customer’s shoes is the core in “Design Thinking”. I don’t know if babus will empathize, but empathy is the key armour for a product leader. If you like to learn more about empathy or how few product leaders in the industry empathize to build awesome products join us on 20th of Feb 2015 at Marriott, Whitefield, Bangalore for the very first “Product Leader’s Forum”.

You could also enrol for master session classes prior to the conference http://productleadersforum.org