In this solo presentation, Ian Peterman, CEO and founder of Peterman Design Firm, addresses whether entrepreneurs must understand their customer journey before creating a product. He frames the customer journey as an all‑encompassing, two‑word phrase that captures every interaction a customer has with a brand—from first awareness to the final disengagement. Peterman introduces the "Peterman Method," which treats product development and the customer journey as interdependent: the journey informs product decisions (packaging, ergonomics, branding) and the product, in turn, shapes the journey. He explains that the decision to map the journey first depends on the company’s mission. If the goal is to improve the journey, you start by mapping the current experience and then design a product that enhances it. Conversely, if the focus is on solving a specific problem, you can define the product first and then build an experience around it. He stresses the importance of aligning the product with brand purpose, success metrics, and user‑focused research such as ergonomic studies. Practical take‑aways include: (1) know the existing journey when you have an established brand, (2) define what “amazing” means for the customer experience, (3) use that definition to guide packaging and product design, and (4) consider both approaches—journey‑first or problem‑first—based on strategic goals. The video ends with a call to subscribe and a link to petermanfirm.com.
Chapters
Hello, my name is Ian Peterman. I'm the CEO and founder of Peterman Design Firm, and today I'm going to answer the question, do I need to know my customer journey before developing a product? And this kind of blends in between product development and branding because Your customer experience and your, your customer journey is something that is directly impacted by your product. And at the same time, it's also directly impacted by everything else that is going to go into a company, or it already exists in an existing company. So your sales, your marketing, your sales language, you know, what ads are being put out. What your customer service is like. You know, customer journey is a— is an all-encompassing 2-word phrase that basically talks about everything that your customer will ever experience from you, ever, starting from the time that they figure out who you are to the time that they are no longer working with you for whatever reason that is, right? And so in our method, Peterman Method, that we use in order to develop products, we see product development as something that needs to be looked at alongside the customer journey. And it is kind of chicken and egg sometimes because it depends on— and it really depends on what your mission is. So if your focus in developing a product is to make a customer journey better, then the focus is figuring out what is the customer journey now and how does a product improve that. And so they can, they can basically feed off of each other and they can build and create a really great experience. And that's how you get, you know, focus on packaging. So if your customer journey is something really specific or you have something in mind, we want to keep in mind what that journey is while we develop product, because how we develop the packaging and even the product experience itself will really, really care and it'll really impact the journey. And so if you have a very clear journey, if it's something that maybe you have a company and you already have an experience that your customers go through, then you absolutely need to know that first, and so do your designers. Whoever you're working with, they need to know what that journey is because you want the product to meet and match and fit in with the existing journey. And I've been asked this question because people ask, do I need to know everything that's going to happen? Do I need to know what my customer experience is going to be. And sometimes we can do it both ways, really. And the best option is to define what your, what your customer journey is, because part of that is figuring out what success is. And so when a customer comes to you, they need to— they're coming to you for a solution. And that solution how we get there, that solution will determine what the product is. It'll also help determine the journey and you as a company and your brand. You know what your brand is and you know what you're about, your whys, and that will help inform what the journey is going to be. And the product development almost comes alongside that in that you sit down and you say, okay, well, I want my customers to have an amazing experience when they receive the product. Well, what does that mean? What is— what does amazing mean to you in this case? And so once you define that, now we can make packaging that works. Now we can make a product that works to create that experience. So you definitely can start there. You can also be a little bit more focused on the problem the product is solving. The product solves X. Scissors cut paper. Great. Well, now you can go, okay, well, how is that experience? You build an experience around the product. So it kind of depends on your strategy. Both have worked. Many, many different companies have used both methods to get there. And in my experience, you want to be— the projects that are more user-focused, they look at customer experience a little bit before. They start thinking of, what do I want this customer experience to be? And it's part of, you know, we do things like ergonomic studies and things like that. And that's on a technical level, right? We want it to fit. We want our mouse to be the shape that your hand, you know, fits in it. We don't want a mouse to be Like this, not very— little cactus, but not really enjoyable as a mouse. So those things matter, but— and they impact the journey, but you also want to be aware of the journey. So my advice is think about what the journey is, what do you want that experience to be, and then that will help tailor the product to help create the experience that you're going for, and that'll produce happier customers that enjoy the experience of being your customer. Hey, thanks for watching. We really appreciate our viewers, and if you haven't subscribed yet, please do subscribe to our channel so you can get more great videos like this in your feed, and like the video. If you want to learn more about the Peterman Design Firm, please check us out on our website, petermanfirm.com. You'll find link and information in the description. And of course, we're on all social media as well, so check us out there. All right, thank you. Thank you.
