6 Steps to Building a Customer Insights Program with Shoshana Kordova

#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 studiesHow to collaborate across teams (especially with CS and product) to get buy-in and avoid stepping on toesThe most common mistakes B2B marketers make with interviews and how to get the kind of insights you can actually useWhether 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 Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, helping modern marketing teams build fully custom sites—no developer needed—that perform in AI search. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Markup AI - A content quality platform that scans your content against brand voice, preferred terms, messaging standards, and AI-search readiness before it goes live, right inside Google Docs. Learn more at markup.ai.Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/exitfive.Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more