Customer Focus

Leaders start with their customers and work backward. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust.

Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

Situation	Under	Just Right	Over
A customer is blocked this week	Closes the ticket once it is assigned elsewhere. Does not check whether the customer can work again.	Stays with the issue until the customer can continue. Pulls in whoever is needed, gives the customer a clear next step, and keeps the fix small enough that the rest of the week's work still ships.	Camps on the ticket and drops the other customer work already in flight. Those customers wait while one issue gets undivided attention.
Picking which bugs to fix	Works the newest or easiest tickets. Bugs that stop customers from getting their work done sit in the backlog.	Asks which defects are blocking real jobs this week. Fixes those first, even when they are messy, and leaves cosmetic issues with a short note on why they wait.	Treats every small complaint as urgent. The team spends the week on one-off annoyances while a bug that blocks customers stays open.
Another team is waiting on you	Leaves the request in the queue. Does not ask what customer work is stuck behind it.	Learns who is blocked and what they need to finish this week. Sends a smaller first version that unblocks them and holds the extras for later, so both teams' customer work can move.	Drops their own customer commitments to polish the internal request past what was asked. The asking team gets more than they needed, and external customers wait.
In a customer meeting	Walks through internal plans. Leaves without knowing what the customer is trying to get done.	Starts by asking what the customer is working on and what is in the way. Commits only to what the team can do soon, writes it down, and takes the rest back as input rather than a promise.	Says yes to every request to keep the meeting warm. The team spends the following days untangling commitments it cannot staff.
A promised date is going to slip	Stays silent. The customer learns about the miss when the work does not arrive.	Calls as soon as the slip is certain. Offers a smaller piece they can use now and a date for the rest that the team can actually hold.	Adds free extras or a tighter new date to soften the news. The second miss costs more trust than the first honest delay would have.
One customer asks for a custom change	Parks the request and never checks whether anyone else has the same problem.	Asks how widespread the need is. Builds a shared version if it is common, or declines the one-off and offers a path the product already supports.	Squeezes the special case into this week's work. Support now has to handle an exception, and the next customer expects the same treatment.
Reviewing a change before it ships	Marks the ticket done without walking the customer path. Confusing steps go out unnoticed.	Tries the change the way a customer will. Holds the release for a step that would block them, and lets leftover polish wait until after it ships.	Stops the release over minor wording and rare edge cases. The fix customers are waiting on sits another week.
Telling a customer no	Avoids the conversation. The customer keeps planning around something the team will not build.	States the no, the reason, and what saying yes would cost other customers. Offers the closest supported option and puts the answer in writing, including what would have to change for the team to reconsider.	Softens the no until it sounds like a later yes. The customer staffs a plan around a capability that never arrives.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

Blue Origin Work Culture
The published wording of this principle.
blueorigin.com
About Blue Origin
The mission this principle is meant to serve.
blueorigin.com