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How I turn customer complaints into product wins

Getting the “obvious” fixes prioritized when your company has big goals

Author

Stefanie Brown
September 19, 2025

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👋 Hey friend,

I’ve gotten the same complaint about 20 times in the past few months: charts getting cut off in our email exports.

It’s one of those things that feels so obvious to fix. Of course charts should fit properly in email exports. But when your company has big strategic goals like “modernize reporting,” these smaller papercuts keep getting pushed down the list.

The thing is, this “small” issue was actually preventing customers from sharing our reporting data with their teams. But I needed more than my gut feeling to get it prioritized.

The Reality of Working at Companies with Big Goals

Here’s what I appreciate about HubSpot: we’re encouraged to use customer feedback to refine our strategy. Leadership might set a goal like “modernize reporting,” but we get to figure out what that actually means by talking to customers.

The challenge is that when you have defined strategic goals, it can be really hard to get the smaller, obvious fixes prioritized. Everyone’s focused on the big initiatives.

The chart export issue is a perfect example. We all knew it was annoying, but it took collecting enough customer voice to move it from “we should fix this someday” to “this is actually blocking a key use case.”

The Pattern Behind Every Great Product Decision

What I’ve learned is that customer complaints aren’t just problems to solve. They’re insights into how people actually use your product versus how you think they use it.

That chart export complaint taught me that our users aren’t just consuming reports in our dashboard. They’re taking screenshots, forwarding emails, presenting to executives, and sharing insights across teams.

One complaint revealed an entire workflow we hadn’t optimized for.

The shift: Stop seeing complaints as interruptions. Start seeing them as free user research that tells you exactly what to build next.

My Framework for Turning Complaints Into Wins

Here’s the process I use when customer feedback hits my inbox:

1. Look for the pattern, not the problem One person says charts are cut off = bug report Five people say charts are cut off = usability issue
Fifteen people say charts are cut off = missing core functionality

💡 Quick tip: I keep a simple doc where I log: Date, Customer, Issue, Business Impact. When I hit 5+ similar complaints, it’s worth investigating.

2. Ask “What job are they trying to do?” They’re not just trying to export a chart. They’re trying to share insights, make presentations, communicate with stakeholders. The real job is much bigger than the complaint.

📌 Try this: Instead of “How do we fix this?” ask “What workflow is this blocking?” You’ll often find a much bigger opportunity.

3. Connect to business impact If customers can’t easily share our reporting data, they’re less likely to become power users. Less likely to upgrade. Less likely to renew. Suddenly a “small” export issue becomes a retention conversation.

💡 Quick tip: Ask yourself: “How does this complaint connect to activation, retention, or expansion?” If you can’t connect it, it might not be worth prioritizing.

4. Build your case with data I track complaints in that simple doc, but I also look for patterns in support volume, customer feedback scores, or usage data. When I have multiple data points, I have a case for prioritization.

📌 Try this: Next time you want to prioritize something, lead with customer voice, not your opinion. “12 customers told us X” is more powerful than “I think we should do X.”

The Complaint That’s Changing Our Q4 Plans

The chart export issue started as random support tickets. But when I began tracking the pattern, I discovered it was coming up way more than I thought.

I don’t have exact numbers yet (still collecting data), but it’s frequent enough that it caught our attention during quarterly planning conversations.

I put together a summary with customer quotes and examples of how it’s affecting their workflows. It’s not shipped yet, but it went from “we should probably fix this” to “let’s scope this for Q4.”

Sometimes that’s the win - not getting something shipped immediately, but getting it prioritized properly.

Quick Reads for Customer-Driven PMs

  • The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick: How to ask customers questions that actually matter

  • Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres: Building systems to stay connected to customer needs

  • Jobs to Be Done by Tony Ulwick: Understanding the real job customers are hiring your product to do

  • Talking to Humans by Giff Constable: Practical guide to customer research that doesn’t suck

This Week’s Challenge

Pick one recurring complaint or piece of feedback you’ve been hearing in your current role. Apply the framework:

  1. Track it: How often does this come up? From which customers?

  2. Dig deeper: What’s the real job they’re trying to do?

  3. Connect to impact: How does this affect key business metrics?

  4. Make your case: Create a one-page summary with customer voice, data, and recommended action

Even if you’re not a PM yet, this exercise shows product thinking in action. It’s exactly the kind of work that makes hiring managers pay attention.

Remember: your customer-facing experience isn’t just background noise. It’s your competitive advantage. You hear things other PMs miss, and you understand the human impact behind every feature request.

That’s not just valuable. That’s irreplaceable.

Ready to turn your customer insights into product wins? I’d love to hear about the patterns you’re seeing in your role. Hit reply and share what customers are telling you, maybe it’ll spark next week’s newsletter.

See you next Friday,

– Stef

💬 What’s the most common complaint you hear? Reply and tell me. Sometimes the “obvious” problems are the most important ones to solve.

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