# Operationalizing Customer Feedback for Product Growth

By  
Mikhail Dubov  
Last Updated: September 29, 2025  
Reading time: 2 minutes

A while back we spoke to a trio of inspiring product leaders: [Marley Dizney Swanson from MPB](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marleydizneyswanson/), [Ryan McGrew from Zendesk](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmcgrew/?originalSubdomain=dk), and [Zach Hobbs from Atmosphere TV](https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhobbs/) about how to build actionable strategies for turning customer feedback into product development gold. From prioritization to journey mapping, the conversation spotlighted how successful teams stay customer-obsessed while meeting business goals.

## **Prioritizing Customer Needs in Planning**

All panelists agreed that a strong foundation of customer insight is key to shaping annual plans and roadmaps. They use a blend of continuous listening and structured planning:

- **Atmosphere TV** sends product teams to physical locations to talk with users monthly. These insights form hypotheses that drive UX research and eventually roadmap decisions.
- **MPB** aggregates feedback from NPS surveys, Trustpilot, forums, and internal teams. Pain points are ranked by frequency and business impact, then fed into roadmap planning.
- **Zendesk** blends bottom-up feedback from support tickets and community forums with top-down market insights. Decisions are aligned with business KPIs like revenue and churn.

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## **Balancing Innovation and Fixes**

Innovative features and core issue resolutions don’t have to be at odds:

- **Zendesk** focuses AI innovation on solving traditional support challenges more efficiently, merging modern tech with legacy pain points.
- **MPB** distinguishes between "evergreen" and "discrete" issues. Evergreen pain points like trust are ripe for innovation (e.g., their new product comparison tool).
- **Atmosphere TV** creates separate teams for innovation and maintenance to avoid trade-off paralysis, supporting a culture where fixing things is as valued as creating new ones.

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## **From Feedback to Metrics: Real Impact Stories**

The session included compelling use cases where customer insights directly boosted business metrics:

- **Atmosphere TV** shifted its KPI focus from engagement (logins) to retention and NPS after discovering customers valued simplicity over usage.
- **Zendesk** increased adoption of AI agents by building customer trust through transparent previews and source-cited outputs.
- **MPB** used feedback insights from Chattermill to clarify accessory requirements for sellers. The result? Higher NPS and increased quote conversion.

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## **Collaboration Across Teams**

Cross-functional alignment was a core theme:

- **MPB** maintains a shared product and customer org structure, publishes monthly VOC reports, and holds quarterly feedback alignment sessions.
- **Zendesk** uses shared roadmaps, feedback SLAs, and public forums to create accountability between teams.
- **Atmosphere TV** drives buy-in with customer videos, app reviews, and ad-hoc Slack shoutouts, creating emotional resonance around customer challenges.

## **Takeaways for Product Teams**

- Quantify pain points with data and impact metrics before pitching.
- Balance short-term fixes with long-term bets by assigning dedicated teams.
- Use structured listening forums like VOC reports to foster collaboration.
- Supplement dashboards with human stories to influence hearts and minds.
- Don’t just collect feedback - synthesize insights and operationalize them.

Want to see how the world's best product teams uncover customer insights to drive product improvements? [Discover Chattermill for Product Teams.](/content/solution/teams/product/index.html)