The Underrated Path to Product Management: Start with Customer Experience
I didn’t plan on becoming a Product Manager. I just wanted to understand user experience better — and somehow, that curiosity shaped my entire career. My internship at GoZayaan, a Bangladesh-based travel tech company, was short but intense — more like a management trainee rotation than a typical internship. One of the most eye-opening parts of that experience was spending an entire week shadowing the Customer Experience (CX) team.
I saw firsthand how they meticulously managed documentation and FAQs, ensuring a seamless support system despite operating with a small but highly effective team. The nature of their work was especially demanding, considering that customers were making high-value purchases (such as airline tickets). That was my first real glimpse into how CX is a gateway to understanding any product — and how it’s managed.
Every time I get direct exposure to customer experience, my respect for CX professionals grows. The field demands an exceptional mix of emotional intelligence, eloquence, and data-driven organization skills — all of which are invaluable in product management. Over the years, I’ve had multiple opportunities to shadow, collaborate with, and learn from CX teams. Each time, I walked away with insights that shaped my approach to product strategy.
Learning CX Firsthand: Rotations, Calls, and Projects
At Banglalink, my Management Trainee rotations included time at the Customer Experience Center (Genex Infosys PLC), where I got a crash course in evaluation processes, customer surveys, and feedback mechanisms. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Banglalink’s CX culture is its annual Customer Experience Week, where employees — regardless of department — engage directly with real users. Every year, the company implements various approaches, including:
✔ Customer Calls — Employees personally interact with customers to understand pain points firsthand.
✔ Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) — Deeper conversations to extract qualitative insights.
✔ Surveys — Large-scale sentiment analysis to identify trends.
✔ Sales & Distribution Exposure — On-the-ground learning from hands-on engagement at retail points.
This hands-on exposure reinforced an important lesson: You don’t truly understand a product until you experience it through your customers’ eyes.
How a CX Project Led Me to My First Product Manager Role
During my time at Toffee — Bangladesh’s leading OTT platform — as part of my CX project, I worked on optimizing agent support tools to make them more efficient and insightful. This experience reinforced how strong execution skills naturally translate into strategic thinking.
For example, I learned how to prioritize automation and accessibility in back-office tools like Content Management Systems (CMS), as small efficiencies here dramatically improve operational effectiveness. I’m incredibly grateful to my then-line manager, who trusted me as the single point of contact for Toffee-related CX before I had even officially joined the team.
This role unexpectedly introduced me to customer-facing copywriting, where I became responsible for FAQs and user support content. That experience gently led me into product management, a field in which I’ve continued to work to this day.
The Power of Direct Customer Conversations
Fast forward to last week, and I once again found myself in direct customer-facing roles. At a product showcase event, we set up a Toffee booth to observe user interactions and gather feedback. One repeated insight stood out:
🟢 Users preferred full tournament access in a single purchase instead of having to extend their access repeatedly (e.g., 1-day, 3-day, 7-day plans).
While this feature already existed, the event highlighted a knowledge gap among our loyal users. Based on this, I worked on:
✔ Revising plan subtitles to make pricing and validity clearer.
✔ Adding Bangla text to explicitly communicate “Full Tournament Access” (as opposed to “30-Day Access”).
The result? Improved clarity, better user experience, and a 4X increase in purchases compared to the previous month.
Beyond Data: Direct Conversations Matter
Beyond structured feedback, I also took customer calls directly due to increased Champions Trophy traffic. While I tend to avoid talking to users directly (because mass-scale B2C feedback can be… challenging), I was surprised by how positive these conversations were.
💡 Key takeaway: Loyal customers love feeling valued.
For Banglalink’s 20-year celebration, I called 10 long-term customers to thank them. I learned that successful customer engagement isn’t just about what you say — it’s about how you say it.
Here’s how I adapted my approach on the spot based on each conversation:
✔ Consent-first approach — Instead of jumping into a long introduction, I simply asked, “Do you have a few minutes to talk?” I know how annoying cold calls can be, and giving customers control over the conversation instantly improved engagement.
✔ Tone adaptation — If a customer seemed to be in a rush, I prioritized telling them about their free bonus (e.g., extra mobile data) before anything else.
✔ Upselling with relevance — If a customer was engaged and open to conversation, I introduced Toffee’s TV features — something they hadn’t heard of before. Since this wasn’t a paid feature, I framed it as a bonus service they could enjoy.
But this also got me thinking:
Why weren’t long-term customers aware of a free feature we had been promoting?
The likely reason: Toffee’s digital-first marketing doesn’t always reach older users. This aligns with global trends — for example:
🔹In the U.S., 73% of people aged 50–64 use social media, but this drops to 45% for those 65+.
🔹 Older users are less exposed to digital marketing, making offline and direct engagement strategies more relevant.
This insight made me rethink how we could bridge the awareness gap for this user segment.
Final Thoughts: No Great Product Exists Without Customer Feedback
Every time I talk to users, I walk away with new insights that no dashboard or analytics report can fully capture. While intuition and data both play crucial roles in product development, nothing replaces real conversations with real users.
💡 Lesson: Your best UX insights don’t always come from analytics — they come from talking to customers.
