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Don't go overboard with customer advocacy

I have recently experienced this issue, and this can happen with anyone who interacts directly with customers. But before I put my point forward, let me first tell you what customer advocacy actually is? Customer advocacy simply means the voice of the customer. As a Product Manager, you are supposed to be the voice of your customers i.e. you have to understand their needs and expectations and work with your internal teams (Designers, Engineers, Leadership teams, etc.) to build the right product(s) and/or feature(s) that best cater their problem(s). So you must be wondering, I should always say "yes" to every customer demand, right? WRONG! You shouldn't, and that's the whole point here. 

There are quite a few cases where you can't and shouldn't say "yes" to customer demand, but let me take one example here. Suppose a customer was facing one problem in their product, so they identified it and asked the Product Manager to build the right product or feature to address that problem. As a Product Manager, you shouldn't straightaway say "yes" in this case and start working on the solution. You have to ask the right questions, you have to get to the bottom of the root cause. It might be the case where the customer is facing the problem, but that problem may be the result of another underlying issue, so you have to ask the right questions to find the actual problem before exploring potential solutions and building one. Don't get me wrong here, you are still a customer advocate and an interface between your customer and your internal teams. Your customer relies on you and it's ultimately your responsibility to work with your internal teams to deliver the right product or feature to the customer.

So before I close, let me reemphasize that it's not just about solving problems, it's about identifying the right problem to solve. Problems can come in different shapes and scenarios - sometimes customers don't know what kind of solution will resolve their problem, sometimes the problem itself is not clear, so you have to keep a close eye on the problem first before diving into the solution.