Steve Jobs was asked if Blackberry should be worried about the iPhone. His response is a model on how to answer questions about competitors:

"You should go ask them (Blackberry)...We're not sending them a message. We're sending customers a message. And developers a message. That we're going to try to serve their needs."

>> The point is to focus your north star on customers.

You cannot control what competitors do.

But you can control what you provide to customers.

In our AI world, customer feedback and data will be accessible everyone.

However, it is critical to NOT lose actual human relationships with customers.

A key challenge for senior leaders is how to maintain product and customer obsession during scale and keep customer-first thinking from eroding.

Practical ways to reinforce this culturally, not just rhetorically:

1/ Launch Voice of the Customer Bar Raisers

2/ Include customer narrative in every WBR/QBR

3/ Exec monthly customer immersions (e.g. roundtables, ride-alongs, onsite visits)

4/ Customer touchpoints as part of performance reviews, ratings, and promos — important for all roles, critical for PMs

What are other ways you've seen companies maintain customer obsession?