Customer Empathy

At Level 2, customer empathy deepens as you start to anticipate needs and advocate for users. You’re learning to balance technical priorities with customer impact—making trade-offs that align with their goals. You actively seek out feedback, refine your understanding, and begin to influence decisions with the customer in mind. You may collaborate with cross-functional teams to address pain points, improve experiences, and deliver value.

Key Behaviors

  • Proactively seeks customer feedback to inform decisions
  • Advocates for user needs during planning and review
  • Balances technical priorities with customer impact
  • Collaborates with cross-functional teams to address pain points
  • Refines understanding of customer goals and challenges

Common Struggles

  • May over-prioritize technical solutions without considering user impact
  • Might struggle to balance competing needs or constraints
  • Can find it challenging to advocate for customers in technical discussions

Success Indicators

You know you're successful when you:

  • Demonstrate a clear understanding of customer goals and challenges
  • Influence decisions with customer impact in mind
  • Collaborate effectively to improve user experiences
  • Advocate for customer needs in technical discussions

Mindset Shift

From:

"I solve technical problems."

To:

"I solve customer problems with technical solutions."

Questions to Ask Yourself

  • What trade-offs are we making—and how do they affect users?
  • How can we validate this solution with real customer feedback?
  • What’s the simplest way to deliver value to users?

Build These Habits

  • 1
    Regularly review customer feedback and data
  • 2
    Participate in user research or support calls
  • 3
    Collaborate with cross-functional teams to address pain points

Seek Feedback

  • "How well does this solution address customer needs?"
  • "What feedback have we received on this approach?"
  • "Are there simpler ways to deliver value to users?"

Signals You're Ready to Level Up

  • You advocate for customer needs consistently
  • You influence decisions with a clear understanding of user impact
  • Others trust you to balance technical priorities with customer goals

Focus Summary

  • Anticipate needs
  • Advocate for users
  • Balance priorities

At Level 2, customer empathy is about anticipation and advocacy. You’re learning to make decisions that align with user goals—and to influence others to do the same.