How Darin Bellisario Thinks About Trusting Your Customers' Feelings

Most leaders say they put the customer first. Darin Bellisario says that is harder than it sounds, and he shares what it takes.

Darin Bellisario is the CEO of Good Owners, a pet parent education organization. In this conversation, he and Kenny start with why artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing customer-centric design back to the front. Then they talk about why it is so hard to do well, why data is not the same as knowing your customer, and Darin's rule of thumb: trust their feelings, not their solutions. They also cover the nonlinear learning journey, where customers will spend their effort, and a first step any leader can take.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to the Show

01:41 Customer-Centric Design In The Age Of AI

03:39 Why Customer-Centricity Is So Hard

09:15 Why Say Pet Parent

14:50 Data Is An Abstraction Of Reality

22:15 Customer-Centricity Is Not Data

24:25 Trust Their Feelings, Not Their Solutions

33:58 The Nonlinear Learning Journey And AI

39:21 Where Customers Will Spend Their Effort

43:39 A First Step Any Leader Can Take

What You'll Learn

• Why customer-centric design is hard to do. Darin says everyone wants to say they put the customer first, but it takes real commitment. His team ran hundreds of interviews with dog parents and spent years talking with rescues, breeders, trainers, and daycares

• Why Good Owners says pet parent. The word came from how dog parents see themselves, and Darin says you know the work is real when designers, copywriters, engineers, and marketers choose those words on their own

• Why data is an abstraction of reality, and two questions to ask when you look at survey numbers: what are you not measuring, and what are you not asking?

• Why customer-centricity is not data. It is a relationship with the customer. Darin's rule of thumb is to trust their feelings and forget the solutions they suggest, because customers are not thinking about what is possible

• How the nonlinear learning journey works. Every dog parent starts in a different place, so the Guide to Dogs lets you go to any chapter and dogGPT tailors the answer. Darin also says to remove the friction that frustrates customers and let them spend their effort where they want to

• A first step any leader can take: ask how your team can spend time with customers, and how you make room for it. Darin says you can start overnight, and to just go have conversations instead of trying to measure everything

About Darin Bellisario

Darin Bellisario is the CEO of Good Owners, a pet parent education organization working to help the millions of new and lost dog parents struggling to get the information and knowledge they need to be successful in their lives with their companions. A former management consultant and MIT Ph.D., Darin has led his team of engineers and dog professionals to create both the Good Owners Guide to Dogs - now the largest, most extensive resource for dog parents ever created - and dogGPT - the first Pet AI platform able to give parents reliable, comprehensive guidance.

Darin Bellisario Resources

Website: https://www.goodowners.guide/?utm_medium=podcast

Guide to Dogs: https://www.goodowners.guide/?utm_medium=podcast

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darinbellisario/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodowners_rcoc/

Listen on Other Platforms

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-leaders-think-with-kenny-lange/id1434737807

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wKtzb6KaF1vNlG9TsZkzh

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b13c5d64-50db-4626-9685-c356116ec54b

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KennyLange/podcasts

Website: https://howleadersthink.kennylange.com/

Free 5-minute leadership diagnostic: https://kennylange.com/diagnostic