I was once super fortunate to experience an incredible team exercise: Become the customer and get to know each other in the process.
Part of the product I worked on allowed people to buy and sell cars. We were given a budget to buy a second-hand car, to experience the end-to-end buying experience. We also had to sell the car a week or so later – after a fun day out driving the cars around a disused airport! 
Not only did my colleagues and I get closer to our customer experience, we learnt a whole lot about each other in the process – a goal that wasn’t explicitly decided upfront. This sort of appreciation just made for a better team and there was a certain buzz amongst us for months to come.
Having stepped into the shoes of our customers – as best as we could – I found it influenced my high-level test strategy and my day-to-day test approach.
What team activities have you tried to better understand your customers, and in doing so, your team? What happened? What did you learn about yourself and others? What customer experience team exercises have you bookmarked that you’d like to try? How does a fully remote setup affect the opportunity? Who is your customer and how do you become them? What might you try in September to better understand your customers and team? How does this impact your approach to testing?
Now might be a good time to get closer to your customer and write about your experience.
This month I challenge you to write about:
Team Activities to Better Understand Your Customers and Team
How to get involved
- Write a blog on the above topic any time in September, by the 30th
- It can be as long or as short as you want it to be
- Share a link to the blog on this thread
- Receive lots of support, encouragement, and love from the community
- It’s likely you’ll get a shout out from the Ministry of Testing Twitter account
- If you want to get reminders to submit your blog, RSVP below
Inspire yourself to inspire others. Good luck!
