“We should all report to the users.”

When Haier Smart Home acquired GE Appliances, in the first meeting the GE Appliances folks asked who they would be reporting to. This was the response given by the Haier Smart Home CEO. Unusual answer, right?! Especially when reporting lines run upward, not outward.

At Haier, this is known as Rendanheyi, a new word I learnt today. It is created by combining three Chinese words:

Ren means employees. Dan refers to user value. Heyi means integration.

This means every employee gets to create value for users.

As product people, how should we internalize “we report to the user”? Perhaps we start by asking ourselves some questions.

***1. Do I deeply understand the job the user is trying to get done, and not just who the user is?

  1. Am I really serving the user, or am I serving an internal proxy?

  2. What evidence do I have that our last release actually changed something for the user in a meaningful way? Or are we just claiming that things are better for them?

  3. Are our metrics really tied to things users actually experience?

  4. If our team truly “reported to users”, what would we stop doing? What would we double down on?***

For those on product teams, how has this mindset helped you in your work?

For Product, Design and Engineering leaders, how do you build a user-centric culture for your teams?