The main problem with the “talk to customers” mantra in top tier companies is that the vast majority of your people who talk to customers are going into customer conversations for confirmation & performative heroics and not for learning & insight.

So, they will cherrypick customer feedback, not actually listen to everything the customer is saying, follow certain threads for confirmation and ignore others that might point to disconfirmation, and then present their “findings” in a sexy & neat package that’s irresistible to the CEO & execs.

There is no great solution to this problem, because most people, including >80% of highly intelligent people (in any company), are just wired to seek confirmation & validation. They are not wired with the desire to win in the market (even though everyone is sure they are).

Now, if you must have a mantra to motivate & guide the masses in your company, make your mantra to “understand customers” rather than “talk to customers”. Talking is easy, understanding is rare. ‘Understanding’ is a much higher bar than ‘talking’, and that is precisely the kind of high bar a top-tier company must meet.

And the best solution is leading from the top by yourself embodying what understanding customers truly means and holding an extremely high bar for insight that’s presented to you as the leader.

As you nod along and confirm to yourself ‘I am already doing this’, consider that perhaps you aren’t, because if you were truly doing this in proportion to your ambition for your team & company, many more of your recent features and products would’ve won than has been the case.

So perhaps the best place for you to start, as a leader, is to seriously consider how you yourself are falling short of the ideal that you wish for others on your team.