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- "The customer is always right" goes the old adage. "Always" is a strong word choice, but retail companies can't deny the power and influence that customers can have over the product development process.
- Agile startups are often able to quickly spot and address customer demands for a new product or style.
- When they work collaboratively with customers to bring them what they want, the final product is inevitably a success.
Though retail companies have dedicated product developers and marketers to determine what products to release next, they do often take into consideration the feedback and requests of their loyal customers. After all, without customers, these brands wouldn't be able to succeed as they do, so it behooves them to listen with open ears.
For startups, the timeline between noticing a common customer demand and bringing it to market is sped up. Unshackled by the bureaucracies of a legacy company, the small teams tend to be able to move more nimbly and interact with their fans in more creative, efficient ways.
These conversations between brand and customer strengthen loyalties and make customers feel more like active collaborators instead of passive bystanders in the product development process. In the end, both parties win: customer gets exactly what they want, and startup is rewarded with sales.
See eight popular startup products that were created as a direct result of customer demand below - unsurprisingly, they were hits.
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