Customer strategy & product direction
Move faster after you know what is worth moving toward
Most product teams are not short on ideas, effort, or conviction. The harder problem is deciding which customer, problem, and opportunity deserve the next investment.
That gets harder when founders, product, sales, and marketing are all working from different customer signals. Add faster prototyping, distributed teams, and AI-assisted production, and it has never been easier to build before the direction is clear.
We help B2B teams turn customer evidence into sharper product, positioning, and go-to-market decisions. Depending on the situation, that may include a Bullseye Customer Sprint, a Listening Cycle, a Design Sprint, or embedded work alongside the founding team.
The goal is not more research or another strategy deck. It is a direction your team can explain, defend, and act on.
Let's figure out what decision is slowing you down. Book a 25-min consult.
Select case studies
AI vibe coding app, early-stage
Replay began by testing whether operations managers needed help building automation apps. A Bullseye Customer Sprint and 4-5 Listening Cycles surfaced a stronger signal: independent builders shipping production apps with real economic stakes. That evidence helped narrow the customer definition, sharpen the messaging, and shape the direction behind Replay Builder.
Healthcare two-sided marketplace
As part of Sesame's founding team, we used guerrilla interviews and rapid concept testing to clarify a simpler healthcare experience: browse, choose, book. The work helped move the product from early concept toward beta, with 500+ providers represented within about four months and a Figma–Storybook system built to support scale.
Regional utility company
A regional utility's R&D lab was running 70+ projects with little visibility across the wider organization. Through foundational research and a series of Design Sprints, we developed the Customer Energy Control Center concept and dashboards that gave the lab a clearer process, language, and way to communicate its strategic value.
Tier 1 bank-integrated fintech
With sales down 23% over 18 months, the team initially focused on CFOs. Interviews revealed that controllers lived the operational problem more directly. We reframed the offer from lower processing costs to reconciliation and audit relief, then ran 13 additional interviews to pressure-test the revised customer, positioning, and product direction.
Shep — founding team, pandemic, acquisition
We shifted from SMBs to enterprise after discovering that larger organizations carried the stronger travel-compliance and duty-of-care risk. When COVID collapsed business travel, the team returned to customer evidence and reoriented the product around safety and health notifications. Flight Centre acquired Shep in 2021.
Fortune 100 dental insurance provider
A large dental insurer wanted to move beyond reacting to claims, complaints, and churn. Using our Clear Path Forward, we combined connected-toothbrush data, behavioral rewards, research, and concept development to create a preventive-care proof of concept and a concrete strategic direction the team could take to leadership.
Unified customer interaction platform
Bank of America relationship managers were working across 10+ business lines without a unified view of the customer. Through 20+ stakeholder interviews and 12+ validation sessions, we developed and tested a 360-degree customer-view concept designed to support more informed, personalized service
Some engagements have disclosure and privacy constraints. These summaries focus on the strategic question, the evidence considered, and the direction that followed. Additional context may be available in a 1:1 conversation, where appropriate.
Here's what working together looks like
Some teams need us to lead the work — from customer evidence and facilitation through direction and deliverables. Others want a thinking partner while their team carries the work forward. And some already have product, design, or agency support in place and need sharper judgment around what to do next.
We've worked all three ways, sometimes in the same engagement. What stays consistent is the approach: we don't make things until we understand what's worth making, and we don't hand over a deliverable without making sure your team knows what to do with it.
The work usually lives somewhere across customer discovery and sprint facilitation, product strategy and positioning, design, and prototyping. Often it's more than one.
This is a no pitch zone
Tell us what decision your team is trying to make
We’ll talk through where you are, what evidence you already have, and whether the Bullseye Customer Sprint, a Listening Cycle, or another approach makes sense.
If we aren't the right fit, we'll say so.
Phone: +1 917-720-6388
Email: heythere@howthisworks.co
Book a call: howthisworks.co/start
Based in San Francisco, CA, working globally
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