Who Is the User?
Separate the person using the product from the people buying and governing it. · Product Judgment · Lesson 02 · 3 min
Who Is the User? · 3 min
Product Judgment
“The user” can hide important differences
Imagine software used by a restaurant chain.
The cashier uses it every day.
The store manager configures it.
Head office pays for it.
Finance approves the contract.
Who is the user?
Potentially all of them, in different ways.
Product Judgment
User and customer are not always the same
A user is the person who actually uses the product.
A customer is the person or organization paying for it.
In consumer products, these may be the same person.
In B2B software, they often are not.
Product Judgment
Other roles matter too
A product may also have:
Buyer
Chooses whether to purchase.
Admin
Configures access and settings.
Stakeholder
Cares about the outcome without using the product directly.
Knowing which role you are solving for changes the product decision.
Product Judgment
Example
Suppose employees hate a reporting tool because it takes ten clicks to submit an expense.
Finance loves it because every field is standardized.
If you only interview finance, you may think the product is working perfectly.
If you only interview employees, you may miss why the controls exist.
Both perspectives matter.
Product Judgment
PM question
When someone says:
Users want this.
Ask:
Which users?
New users?
Power users?
Admins?
Buyers?
People who churned?
Different groups can want opposite things.
Product Judgment
Why segmentation matters
A feature requested by five enterprise admins may matter more commercially than a request from 500 free users.
Or the opposite may be true if growth depends on the free experience.
There is no universal answer.
The important part is knowing whose problem you are discussing.
Remember this
Remember this
“The user” is often too vague.
Know who uses, who pays, who decides, and who is affected before making the product decision.