You could start by just chatting up customers, dive deeper and launch a user survey, or get involved in online communities like the Atlassian Developer Community. Getting out of your comfort zone and finding new people to talk to is a fast, easy way to build empathy and learn a lot in the process. Whether you're aware of it or not, we all exist in a bubble. Here's a few ways to build empathy with your customers: Get out and listen

But the good news is that empathy is like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the more easily you can use it in the future. In order to come up with successful solutions to messy product problems, you need to start from a place of empathy. Even if you intuitively see a problem and have a solution, there are other people in the equation (your customers!) to consider. How often have you been asked to put yourself in someone else's shoes? Making assumptions about someone else's feelings, needs, and wants might seem simple on the surface, but achieving true empathy is a more difficult task.

A big part of the role involves having empathy for your customer, understanding the technical capabilities of your product and which customer pain points it addresses, and finally, finding workable solutions. Product managers are tasked with connecting customer needs to actionable business objectives, ensuring that products and features are successful. Knowing that a lot of our Marketplace Partners fall into this bracket and don't have dedicated product managers, we want to share some tips and resources on how to think like one to help guide your product direction.

If you're a lean team trying to work fast and build extraordinary things, you might not have a ton of time to dwell on your core product or marketing strategy. These are only a few of the big questions that Atlassian Marketplace Partners like you face every day as you build and scale your apps in the Marketplace. How do I build a great product? What should I build next? How do I solve this design problem in a way that will delight my customers?

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