Why Customer Research Is the Growth Lever Most Firms Overlook

When we began doing customer research at Integral, I thought it would confirm what I already knew. Instead, it changed how we saw our business.

The research helped us:

• Spot new opportunities and threats
• Decide where to pivot
• See what problems we truly solved: not just what we thought we solved
  

Some of the signal toward the later stages of the firm even helped us decide to sell the firm to a PE-backed competitor. 

Why Intuition Falls Short

Many founders think they know their customers well. After all, you spend time with them, you build trust, you hear their feedback.

But here’s the truth:

• Relationships create bias. Customers may soften their words to avoid hurting you.
• Our brains filter out what does not fit our assumptions. 
• We’re not always disciplined to cover the topics most relevant (albeit sometimes uncomfortable) topics 

Guessing is slower, riskier, and more costly than being intentional about asking questions.

Practicing What We Preached

At Integral, we had an advantage. Human-centered design research was part of how we helped clients build better technology products. Thinking this way was natural to us.

But even then, we had to convince some of our own operational executives. They worried the research would take too much time. Others believed it would not reveal anything new. Convincing them took almost the same effort we used with clients.

Once the insights came in, the skeptics turned into supporters. That lesson stuck with me: every firm, no matter how advanced, has blind spots about its own customers.

Founders Should Shape the Questions

Ideally, you don’t run the customer interviews yourself. It helps eliminate customer bias and takes the familiarity out of the equation. That being said, you should definitely help design them.

Focus the questions on your biggest assumptions. These are the ones tied to major decisions. For example:

• Are we solving the most urgent version of the client’s problem? Why? Why now? 
• What tradeoffs do customers make when they hire us?
• What blocks them from getting full value from our work?

By aiming your questions at these points, you reduce risk in big decisions, and enable the visionary to be even bolder. 

Why You Should Not Run the Interviews

Founders should not conduct the interviews themselves. Here is why:

• Clients soften their answers when speaking to the founder.
• Strong relationships make it harder to get blunt feedback.
• The discomfort of these conversations can alter the dynamic between yourself and the client. 

Instead, let a third party or another team member ask the questions.

But do not step away entirely. Listen to the recordings.

Founders notice details others miss. This includes tone, pauses, and connections across stories. Those details often point to strategic insight. The winning formula is: someone else asks, and you listen.

Build a Monthly Habit

Many firms treat customer research like an annual project. That approach fails because markets shift too quickly. By the time you review old insights, they are already outdated.

Instead, build a steady habit. For example, instead of doing them once a year, do one interview a month.

This rhythm has powerful effects:

• Compounding learning: small insights add up month after month
• Smaller course corrections: you avoid massive, painful pivots
• Culture shift: your team sees that listening to customers is part of how you work

At first, this may feel like a chore. Push through the friction. Soon, it becomes something your team looks forward to. You will also find yourself adjusting the questions each month as new assumptions arise. That is how the practice stays fresh and valuable.

The Payoff

Over time, the benefits of consistent research are clear:

• Sharper positioning in the market
• Earlier detection of threats and opportunities
• Leadership decisions grounded in validated customer needs
• A culture that values listening over guessing
  

At Integral, research became more than an exercise. It became part of our operating system.

Resources to Get Started

Here are three resources I recommend:

• Demand-Side Sales by Bob Moesta: explains why customers “hire” your services
  
• The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick: teaches how to ask questions that uncover truth
  
• My Convergence.fm episode with Andrew Glaser: we explore how Jobs to Be Done research shapes strategy in a customer lens
  
  

Final Thought

Every leader believes they know their customers. And in some ways, they do, through relationships. But real growth comes when you step past intuition, ask the right questions, and let clients show you what they truly value.

If you want to evolve your firm with confidence, customer research is not optional. It is essential.