Customer-Centric Strategy Formulation

I was a VP at Amazon from 2004 to 2014. In that time, every major new product innovation was built using the same exact process. 11 years later, they are still using that process for everything they build. Here’s how it works. The process is called Working Backwards. It flips the traditional invention approach by not starting with a company’s internal capabilities or current products. It starts instead with a clear definition of a customer problem. The goal is to write a press release describing a significant customer problem or need, how current solutions don’t solve the problem, and the new product user experience for a solution to the problem. This approach is “Backwards” because it starts with a press release (the last step in building a new product ). Most companies start building products by evaluating their existing technology or capabilities, or by looking at new trends, and then trying to build something customers will want. Amazon takes the opposite approach. Working Backwards starts with a deep understanding and concise definition of a customer problem before moving to potential solutions. After writing the Press Release, you add a list of frequently asked questions, or FAQs. The FAQs include the likely questions from customers and the press, as well as the typical questions the internal leaders ask about any new product idea, like "How big is the market?" and "How will we solve the technical challenges?" This document forces teams to clarify not only the customer problem they are solving, but also the ideal outcome from the customer’s perspective. This is all done before a single line of code is written or a prototype is built. To do this, teams frame the problem statement, the customer behaviors, and existing alternative solutions. Then, they describe the ideal customer experience, outlining how the product would solve the problem meaningfully. Finally, they anticipate key challenges (legal, technical, competitive, or operational) and document how they will address them. The key here is this: If the problem statement is weak, unclear, or does not represent a significant customer need (with a large TAM), then moving forward with development is a waste of time and money. While working backwards, teams iterate on the problem definition until it is strong and clear, or they move on to a different idea. Amazon has used this process to build many multi-billion dollar businesses, and it remains a core part of their innovation strategy. By working backwards, Amazon ensures that the products they build have a clear reason to exist before any resources are spent. Follow for more insights about building inside Amazon.

Most Amazon optimisation still focuses on: → rankings → keywords → feature lists → bid adjustments But the longer I work with brands, the more I believe this: Amazon performance is fundamentally a consumer psychology problem. Particularly in emotional categories like pet care. Because customers are not simply buying: “daily multivitamins” or “premium ingredients.” They’re buying: → reassurance → trust → confidence they’re doing the right thing for their dog And in increasingly competitive categories, where CPCs continue rising and products become commoditised, conversion efficiency becomes one of the most important commercial growth levers available. That’s why our optimisation process at Zeal starts with: “The Why Behind The Buy.” Understanding: • emotional purchase drivers • trust signals • customer anxieties • decision barriers • premium positioning psychology Because the goal is not simply improving listings. It’s building PDP ecosystems designed to strengthen trust, differentiation and conversion efficiency. The strongest Amazon brands in the next 3 years won’t just win visibility. They’ll win consumer conviction. And if your PDP isn’t engineered to convert customer intent into purchase confidence… …increasing advertising investment simply becomes a more expensive way to leak demand.

Amazon is coming for your customers. And they’re not playing by your rules. Used cars. New cars. Full-stack retail. Most dealers shrug it off. Big mistake. Because Amazon’s real playbook isn’t about selling cars. It’s about owning the customer. Here’s what your dealership can steal from Jeff Bezos before he steals your market: The Empty Chair Strategy Amazon puts a chair in every meeting to represent the customer. When was the last time your store asked: “What would our customers want?” Data = Your Moat Amazon doesn’t guess. They predict. Dealers sit on CRM, DMS, and service history, and most of it collects dust. That’s not contact info. That’s an AI goldmine. Platform > Transaction Amazon didn’t just sell books. They built the infrastructure of commerce. Smart dealers will do the same: • Service + F&I bundles • Mobile-first experiences • Owning the hub for all things auto in their market Lifetime Value > Front-End Gross Bezos said: “We’re willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.” Amazon plays the long game. Dealers rarely do. If you optimize per deal while Amazon optimizes per customer… who wins? The Playbook for 2025: Use AI to predict upgrades, service triggers, churn risk Build subscription-like relationships Stop renting from vendors and own your customer data asset Invest in tools that deepen relationships, not just close sales Bottom line: In 2025, the best inventory won’t win. The best customer intelligence will. Amazon’s already thinking like a dealer. Why are you still thinking like a vendor? #QoreAI #AutoRetail #DealershipStrategy #CustomerExperience #AutomotiveAI #PlatformThinking

"Your customers aren't giving you a hard time, they're HAVING a hard time." 👆 This hit me like a ton of bricks when Bob dropped it on me last week. It's easy to get frustrated when customers bombard you with "obvious" questions or resist change. But flip the script: Their confusion? It's an opportunity. Their resistance? It's fear, not stubbornness. Their endless questions? They're lost, not annoying. Here's some things I wrote down... PROCESS: --> Replace "Difficult Customer" nomenclature within your Meetings/CRM --> Implement monthly "Friction Audits" across your customer journey --> Make "Customer Effort Score" a key metric in every team's OKRs TECHNOLOGY: --> Use AI and other tech to analyze support tickets for underlying pain points --> Set up real-time alerts for sudden drops in product usage --> Create a "Customer Friction" dashboard that ties to revenue impact PEOPLE: --> Rewrite job descriptions to prioritize problem-solving over firefighting --> Train CSMs to conduct "Customer Challenge Workshops" instead of standard QBRs --> Embed CS team members in Product sprints to voice customer struggles The payoff? ➡️ Churn doesn't just decrease, it becomes predictable ➡️ Up-sells happen organically, not through forced campaigns ➡️ Product roadmap aligns with real customer needs, not just feature requests In SaaS, understanding customer is your ultimate competitive advantage. Your customers are trying to tell you something. Are you set up to really listen?

At Amazon, SDMs (Software Development Manager) are expected to take a holistic, end-to-end ownership of the services they manage. This means being deeply involved not just in the development process, but also in the ongoing operations and continuous improvement of those services. A critical skill for an effective SDM is proactively finding problems. Rather than just reacting to issues as they arise, SDMs need to be able to identify potential problems before they manifest, analyze trends and patterns in customer and on-call data, and then devise long-term, strategic solutions to elevate the operational excellence of their services. Additionally, SDMs must be able to think big and innovate. They should be able to envision ambitious, transformative improvements to their services, and then work backwards to make those visions a reality. The first step is to deeply understand your service - what are the critical components of your architecture? How is a request processed by your service, hop by hop, component by component? Where are the bottlenecks in your system? You need to have this basic understanding of your service's inner workings before you can really see the problems and start creating ideas to address them. Next, you need to know your customers - what value does your service provide to them? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the customer experience? What are the top three pain points that customers face when consuming your service? Understanding the customer perspective is crucial. Equally important is understanding the pain points of your on-call engineers. What keeps them awake in the middle of the night? What are the top three issues they deal with? What is the size of their ticket queue, and how many pages do they receive per on-call shift? Addressing the on-call team's challenges is essential for improving operational efficiency. Once you have a good understanding of the service, the customers, and the on-call team, it's time to think outside the box. Many operational problems are actually signals of underlying architectural defects. For example, if you keep getting tickets from customers requesting quota limit increases, your immediate response might be to automate the approval process. However, this is just addressing the problem at the surface level. Instead, you could ask yourself: Why do we have a quota limit for customers in the first place? Can we make the limit adaptive to customer demand, using concurrency to tune the dynamics of demand and capacity for 99.99% of the use cases? This kind of innovative thinking, where you challenge the fundamental assumptions and explore more radical solutions, is what can lead to true operational excellence. By taking this holistic, customer-centric approach, you can become the product manager of operational excellence and drive meaningful improvements to your service.

Your first bullet point on your Amazon listing? It drives 60% of purchase decisions. Many brands waste it on THIS: Generic features. Shoppers read the first bullet 3-4x more than any other. If it doesn't immediately address their primary need, they click back to search results and buy from a competitor. Here's what eye-tracking data shows: → Shoppers scan listings in an F-pattern - images, title, first bullet. → Most abandon within 8-10 seconds if they don't see their problem addressed. → Your first bullet needs to answer: "Why should I buy this instead of the 12 other options I'm comparing?" Yet brands waste the first bullet on generic fluff: ⊗ "High Quality Materials" ⊗ "Durable Construction" ⊗ "Easy to Use" These tell the customer nothing. Every competitor claims the same things. You've burned your most valuable real estate on platitudes. Here's what actually works - benefit-driven, outcome-focused first bullets: 🟥 Bad: "Made with Premium Stainless Steel" 🟩 Good: "Keeps Coffee Hot for 8 Hours Without Metallic Taste - Perfect for Long Commutes" 🟥 Bad: "Ergonomic Design for Comfort" 🟩 Good: "Reduces Wrist Pain During 8+ Hour Work Days - Tested by 1,200+ Remote Workers" 🟥 Bad: "Advanced Filtration System" 🟩 Good: "Removes 99.9% of Chlorine, Lead, and Microplastics - Your Family Drinks Cleaner Water in 30 Days" Notice the pattern? The effective bullets focus on the outcome or transformation, include specificity (numbers, timeframes), and address who the product is for. They don't describe the product - they describe what the product does for the customer. Mine your 5-star reviews. What do customers say about your product when they love it? ⤷ That's your first bullet. They're telling you what benefit mattered most to them. Use their language, their outcome, their transformation. ⬭ Open your top-performing listing & read the first bullet. ⬭ Does it describe a feature or a benefit? ⬭ Does it address the primary outcome your customer wants? ⬭ If not, rewrite it using this framework: → [Specific Outcome] + [Supporting Detail] + [Who It's For]. ⬭Test the new version for 60 days using Amazon's Manage Your Experiments feature and measure conversion rate lift. The first bullet is the most valuable copy on your listing. Don't waste it.

"Don’t ask what will change in the next 10 years. Ask what 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 change." – Jeff Bezos. The same rule applies to building an Amazon business. One of the biggest mistakes sellers make is to chase every trend. Yes, staying updated on market shifts is important. But if you’re constantly pivoting your entire business around the latest fad, you’re playing a short-term game. The surface like your product selection or marketing angles should evolve. But the core of your business model needs to be sustainable. In e-commerce, fundamentals don’t change. Customers will always want: ✅ Competitive prices ✅ Quality products ✅ Seamless buying experience No customer will ever say, “I wish my order took longer,” “I wish I paid more,” or “I want lower-quality products.” Build your business around what always matters. Here’s what to focus on to make it happen: 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 ➟ Sell products people actually need, not just hype-driven fads. 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 ➟ Master inventory, logistics, and cash flow to scale sustainably. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 ➟ Reviews and ratings drive long-term success—make every purchase a great one. Also, Repeat customers = less ad spend, more profit. Focus on LTV, not just one-off sales. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 ➟ Price competitively, but with margins that keep you profitable. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 ➟ Ads, SEO, and branding—get in front of the right customers. 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 & 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 ➟ Fast fulfillment (FBA or 3PL) keeps customers happy and loyal. 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 & 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 ➟ Long-term brands beat short-term sellers. Build something real. Tech will evolve. Algorithms will shift. But the sellers who get these things right? They’ll still be winning in 10 years. Play the long game. Build a business that lasts. PS. I’ve spent the last 10 years building ZonGuru to help sellers and brands scale with data-driven strategies. We're trusted by brands & agencies doing over $200M in revenue. Want more tips and insights on growing your business? Follow me.

What if the problem isn’t your keywords, but your audience? Last week, I talked about how sellers obsess over Search Query Performance and introduced the Market Basket Analysis. And yes, both are powerful, no doubt. But the truth is that perfect keywords don’t matter if you’re speaking to the wrong customer. However, there’s a deeper layer that we’re still not utilizing enough. The Demographics report. Most sellers don’t realize this even exists or that you can now filter it by individual ASIN. If you’re Brand Registered and have internal access as a Brand Representative, you can see: • Sales broken down by age, gender, income, education, and marital status • Unique customers per demographic segment • Ordered units and product sales by audience group • Filters to include/exclude anonymized data ("Information Not Available" buckets) And while it only includes ASINs with 100 or more unique customers within a given timeframe, it’s enough to change how you operate. Here’s how to turn that data into action: 👉 Identify your top-selling ASINs Start with products that meet the customer threshold. Filter the report by ASIN to get clean, specific insights. 👉 Study the patterns Are your best customers younger than expected? More male than female? Higher income than assumed? These signals should shape your pricing, visuals, and messaging. 👉 Map what you learn to listing content Tailor your bullets, images, and A+ content not just for keywords, but for the context and intent of your actual buyer. 👉 Think in Rufus logic Amazon’s AI isn’t just parsing search terms; it’s evaluating how relevant your listing is to who’s searching. And that means audience context matters more than ever. All this makes so much sense to focus on, because Amazon isn’t just surfacing listings based on keyword alignment anymore. Rufus is optimizing for context. That means: who the shopper is, what they’ve bought before, and what matters to them in that moment. And the sellers who can speak directly to the audience's intent, not just the generic product category, are the ones that will win visibility. If you’ve only been optimizing titles and bullets in isolation, this is your cue to zoom out. Because the future of listing performance is understanding your audience and adapting to their context. #AmazonSellers #BrandAnalytics #AudienceTargeting

Sorry, but your luxury product is not going to be a category bestseller on Amazon. But this doesn't make the Amazon channel any less valuable for premium-priced brands. They just have to redefine the rules of leading a category. You see, investors have grown accustomed to ask about Amazon bestseller ranking...but there's a flaw. Bestseller ranks are measured by units sold...biasing toward low-priced and discounted product. These are often not the winners on Amazon...at least if free cash flow is the measuring stick. Premium-priced brands need to redefine the goal: 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗲: Amazon ranks products by units sold, but premium brands should emphasize metrics like revenue, margins, and customer lifetime value instead of fixating on low-price competitors. 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Your product page, ad creatives, and social proof should reflect an experience worth paying for. Be strategic with messaging that reinforces the premium nature of your product. 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀: Follow up with post-purchase emails, encourage reviews, and stay connected via remarketing. Customers who feel engaged are more likely to become repeat buyers, regardless of price. With these priorities, premium brands can achieve sustained growth on Amazon without compromising their pricing strategy.

Your Product team shapes customer experiences long before your Customer Success team enters the picture. While customer success teams excel at guiding users through challenges, your Product team prevents those challenges from emerging in the first place. Think about the last time you encountered a truly intuitive product. The seamless experience was not crafted by a support article or a helpful chat agent. It was designed by product managers, developers, and designers who anticipated your needs and built solutions directly into the product. This is why integrating your Product and Customer Success teams creates a powerful feedback loop. When product teams understand customer pain points firsthand, they build better features. When CS teams grasp product decisions deeply, they provide more meaningful support. Our Product team at a past company spent weeks shadowing customer support calls. They discovered that users consistently struggled with a specific workflow. Instead of creating more documentation or training materials, they redesigned the interface. And? Support tickets for that feature dropped by 68%. The best product teams build features AND build customer confidence. They create intuitive experiences that users rarely need to reach out for help. They transform complex processes into simple workflows. Do this - Include your product team in customer feedback sessions and support interactions. Give them direct access to support tickets and user behavior data. Ensure they experience the product exactly as customers do. (This is paramount!) Create regular touchpoints between Product and CS teams. The most effective customer success strategy is building a product that prevents problems from occurring. What strategies have you implemented to strengthen the connection between your Product and Customer Success teams?