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Rothman untangles three roles founders often blur together: buyer, user, and customer (the one who signs a contract but never touches the product). Her own war story, where she satisfied a program manager but never met the actual users, shows exactly how a founder can win a deal and still ship the wrong thing. A quick, plainly written primer worth ten minutes.
Who to Satisfy? Differentiate Buyers, Users, and Customers for Effective Product Decisions
From jrothman.com by Johanna Rothman
- Buyer, user, and customer are three separate roles that can live in one person or in three different people
- Satisfying only the person who signs the check can leave the actual users unhappy and unheard
- Map all three roles explicitly for your specific deal before you decide what to build
