Customer Obsession v. Customer Focused

Jeff Bezos encourages us to become Customer Obsessed (see video snippet) however Netflix’s journey to CX Obsession is less well known.

Here is an extract from a great article (link below):

From Gibson Biddle, former VP at Netflix and CPO at Chegg
In 2005, as I joined Netflix as VP of Product, I asked Reed Hastings, the CEO, what he hoped his legacy would be. His answer: “Consumer science.” He explained, “Leaders like Steve Jobs have a sense of style and what customers seek, but I don’t. We need consumer science to get there.”

Gibson Biddle, Former VP at Netflix

Reed’s aspiration was that the Netflix team would discover what delights customers through the scientific process. Forming hypotheses through existing data, qualitative, and surveys, and then A/B testing these ideas to see what works. His vision was that product leaders at Netflix would develop remarkable consumer insight, fueled by results and learning from thousands of experiments.

During my time at Netflix, and later at my next startup, Chegg, I learned to move from customer focus to customer obsession. In doing so embraced Reed’s notion of consumer science. Here’s how I think about the transition:


The full article here is great testimony to moving away from the soft and fluffy version of Customer Experience.
Let’s get more scientific about Customer Experience.

Contact Gibson here.

Is your Customer Experience initiative working for you?
CX Obsessed or just playing at it?
Upskill you or your team find out more to learn how others have become successful with a Customer Obsession strategy


Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

How You Can Become ‘Outside-In’… https://bit.ly/WhyOutsideIn

Start here and follow these simple steps:

Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://bit.ly/GCCACXP

Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE* https://bit.ly/OI2021now

Step #3 – Get the Software:

Parallel | http://bit.ly/Parallel2021

Step #4 – Connect With The Community:

https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

Step #5 – Keep Pace with Change:

Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023