May 29, 2025

6 Steps to Building a Customer Insights Program with Shoshana Kordova

50 minutes

#250 Customer Insights | Matt sits down with Shoshana Kordova, a 3x founding product marketer and former journalist who now helps B2B tech startups craft customer-infused messaging through her consultancy, Peel Product Marketing. Shoshana recently launched a customer insights playbook for the PMM Jetpack, equipping marketers with tools and templates to run more effective customer interviews.

Matt and Shoshana cover:

Why a customer insights program is more than “just talking to customers” and how to turn interviews into a repeatable system that drives messaging, positioning, and case studies
How to collaborate across teams (especially with CS and product) to get buy-in and avoid stepping on toes
The most common mistakes B2B marketers make with interviews and how to get the kind of insights you can actually use

Whether you're a product marketer, content strategist, or leading a GTM team, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways to build messaging that resonates.

Timestamps

(00:00) - – Intro

(01:05) - – Meet Shoshana: From Journalism to Product Marketing

(02:15) - – What Is “Customer-Infused Messaging”?

(04:00) - – Why Customer Insights Beat Surface-Level Deliverables

(06:00) - – How to Work with CS and Sales Without Stepping on Toes

(09:00) - – Navigating Competing Priorities Across Teams

(11:20) - – Selling the Value of Customer Interviews Internally

(15:20) - – The 6 Steps to Building a Customer Insights Program

(17:15) - – Step 1: Aligning Goals with Stakeholders

(18:55) - – Step 2: Building a Customer Interview Pipeline

(21:00) - – Step 3: Keeping Stakeholders in the Loop (Hint: Use Slack)

(25:15) - – Step 4: How to Run a Great Customer Interview

(30:45) - – Focus on Problems, Not Just the Product

(33:20) - – Uncovering Real ROI with Better Follow-Ups

(34:30) - – Step 5: Documenting What Actually Matters

(36:50) - – How to Organize Insights into a Shared Database

(39:40) - – Step 6: Putting Insights to Work (Case Studies, Messaging, ICPs)

(42:00) - – Should You Hire an External Interviewer?

(44:15) - – What’s a Realistic Interview Cadence?

(45:45) - – Other Places to Find Customer Insights (When Interviews Aren’t Possible)

(47:20) - – Final Tips: Mining G2 Reviews, Webinars, and Internal Teams

(48:34) - – Wrap-Up and Where to Find Shoshana

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