The Lean Startup methodology is a concept thatoriginated in the tech industry in 2008, and has since taken otherindustries by storm. Fundamental to this concept is the idea ofbuilding a minimally viable product, that is, a product that wouldsolve a particular problem or set of problems for a very specificaudience or customer. This was a sharp divergence from thoughtprocesses held by enterprises in the past, and seemscounterintuitive at face value: Why deliver an imperfect product tomarket?

In reality, releasing a product that still delivers value infront of a customer as soon as possible, gathering feedback, anditerating on product features based on that information leads tobetter products, and happier customers in the long run.

This is a concept embodied wholeheartedly at Maxwell Health, atechnology company building benefits administration, enrollment,and engagement tools in HR and employee benefits. It’s been fouryears since our founding in 2013, and we still approach newdevelopment initiatives from a standpoint of constant iteration and improvement.

I sat down with our world-class design team, in charge of everyuser experience, workflow, and interface within the platform, tolearn about why it’s so important to learn our customers’ painpoints, the strategies that they use, and what brokers can learnfrom them.

Why is gathering feedback so important?

Empathy is a core value that has been critical to the company’ssuccess. For the design team, there is nothing more important thandesigning with empathy for our customers, and that starts withknowing their stories and pain points, and understanding the impactthat our work has on their lives - the positive impact if donewell, and the negative impact if executed poorly.

“One of the most fulfilling parts about working here is thatwe’re building a technology that matters to a lot of people; we’renot selling socks,” said Kristen Boice, one of Maxwell Health’sproduct designers. “The accuracy and usability of our system meansthat people will get paid on time, and have access to health careand a sense of security for their family. If something doesn’twork, and an HR person is missing dinner with their family becauseof an issue, that’s important for us to know. It provides a realgravitas to the work we do, and a sense of urgency to solve thatproblem for all of our customers. It’s incrediblymotivating.”

Empathy is a two-way street. Maxwell’steam becomes closer to our customers when we hear their stories andfeel their pain and successes, and our customers are more satisfiedwhen they feel listened to, and when they know that even if we’renot perfect today, we’re working to solve their problems actively,with an ear to the ground.

Know your customers, and your customers’customers.

Designers and benefits advisors share an incredibly powerfulrole in customer relationships: the role of the expert. It is easyto take that role to mean that your customers want you to makedecisions for them; but if you haven’t lived their story, it’s easyto lose sight of how to solve their problems. The reality is,designing solutions for someone else is hard, and research isparamount.

Additionally, serving multiple types of customers, as bothdesigners and benefits advisors do, is a complicating factor. As abroker, designing solutions for an HR team alone is a problem, in that it doesn’ttake into account the employee’s experience. In the end, HR teamsare trying to solve problems for employees. If brokers can solveproblems for both parties, they’ll have clients for life.

“It’s so important to know that not everyone thinks the way thatwe think,” said Maxwell’s Product Marketing Manager Ashley Faber.“We might think something is obvious and intuitive in a workflowbecause we built it, and we’re so close to it. But sometimes, wefind that the language we used didn’t resonate, or we createdsomething that worked for one segment of our customers but confusedanother. It’s so important to step out of our bubble, understandwhat our customers get caught up on, and address it.”

This is just the first in a series of articles on how ourdesigners gather, analyze, prioritize and incorporate feedback fromour customers and the lessons benefits advisors can learn fromthem. Stay tuned for our next article, covering specific strategiesto implement to effectively learn from your customers, comingsoon!