Product Unmuted

We’ve all heard it: “Put the customer first.”

It’s painted on office walls, embedded in OKRs, and polished into pitch decks. But let’s be honest—how often does “customer first” actually show up in our day-to-day product decisions?

In my years building and launching fintech products—from user journeys to BaaS platforms—I’ve seen this play out time and time again: the best decisions don’t come from clever features or internal consensus. They come from empathy. Not as a slogan, but as a discipline practiced daily.

Let’s talk about what it really means to embed empathy into product development—across discovery, prioritization, design, and leadership.

Understand vs. Assume: Escape the Echo Chamber

One of the easiest traps product teams fall into is assuming they understand their users. That assumption might come from past experience, gut instinct, or second-hand feedback from sales or support. But often, we end up building for a persona—not a person.

Empathy starts with humility: the willingness to admit we don’t know everything and to go find out.

I’ll never forget a user in a consumer research group who cut through our excitement with a single sentence: “I want you to stop being condescending.”

We thought we were building something sleek and modern. They just wanted clarity and respect. That shift in perspective shaped how I approach product to this day.

How to practice this:

• Run problem interviews—not just solution tests. Let customers and stakeholders co-create the outcome.
• Use journey mapping to visualize friction and emotion, not just steps.
• Involve cross-functional teams in customer conversations. Shared understanding builds stronger alignment and better products.

Empathy in Discovery: Go Deeper Than the Ask

Your customer says, “I want faster approvals.”

What they may really mean is, “I need peace of mind so I can plan for my business.”

Empathy means digging beneath the surface. It’s about understanding context, motivations, and consequences—not just capturing feature requests.

A tool I use often: the 5 Whys.

• Why do you need it?
• Why now?
• What happens without it?

Keep asking until you get to the root. That’s where the real problems—and insights—live.

Pro tip: Pair qualitative insights with behavioral data. What people say and what they do don’t always match—but the story lives in the tension between the two.

Prioritization with Empathy: Balance Urgency and Impact

Road mapping is a constant balancing act—between business goals, technical feasibility, and stakeholder pressure. But empathy doesn’t compete with those priorities. It sharpens them.

When evaluating what makes it onto the roadmap, I like to ask:

1. Who does this help? (Be specific.)
2. What outcome does it unlock for them?
3. How painful is this problem today?

In one role, I noticed our QA team—true subject matter experts—weren’t included in early product discussions. One QA teammate suggested a fraud detection signal. On paper, it wasn’t a top priority. But I elevated it as a teaching moment: to show every voice matters. That fix? It improved product quality and deepened team engagement.

Empathy builds trust—and trust builds better teams.

Design and Delivery: Empathy in the User Experience

In fintech, we’re not just building apps—we’re impacting people’s finances, credit, and life plans. A cold rejection, confusing UI, or vague status update can erode trust in seconds.

When we reimagined the customer experience at a previous company, we didn’t just clean up the interface—we rewrote the experience. We:

• Added contextual guidance
• Surfaced next-best actions
• Shifted tone from punitive to constructive

The result? Users felt seen—not judged.

Where empathy shows up:

• Transparency: Especially in errors and declines. Be clear, honest, and show a path forward.
• Simplify: Anticipate friction. Reduce anxiety before it starts.
• Be Accessible: Ensure everyone can use your product—regardless of device or ability.

These aren’t “nice to have.” They’re foundational to building trust.

Leading with Empathy: Set the Tone from the Top

Empathy isn’t just for customers—it’s for your team, too.

As product leaders, we set the tone by listening, by making space for different voices, and by showing it’s okay to shift direction when we learn something new.

Sometimes, that means shielding teams from whiplash. Other times, it’s pausing before a sprint and asking, “How’s everyone doing?”

How do you empower people to bring their whole selves to work? Because when they do, they bring diverse ideas. And with diverse ideas, you build better products.

Empathy turns a group of individuals into a team. And when you lead with it, it spreads—to every roadmap debate, design decision, and customer interaction.

Make Empathy Actionable

Empathy isn’t just a soft skill. It’s a product strategy. And like any strategy, it can be operationalized:

• Build real customer stories into sprint planning
• Add “trust impact” or “customer clarity” as a KPI
• Share one qualitative insight in every product review

Because when products reflect real human understanding, they don’t just function—they resonate.

And in industries like lending—where the stakes are high and trust is fragile—that resonance is everything.

Empathy doesn’t slow you down. It sharpens your focus. It’s your competitive advantage.