Customer Proximity Triangulation
Combine conversations, service signals, and observation to understand buyers
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 96%
Customer proximity triangulation treats understanding as a continuing operating practice rather than a periodic survey. First, the founder explicitly separates personal preferences from the target customer's context. Second, the company keeps direct channels open through service calls, messages, and substantive conversations about the customer's lifestyle—not merely whether she likes a color or format. Third, the team observes real shopping behavior: what catches attention, what gets tried, what gets put down, who accompanies the buyer, and where education appears necessary. These signals are compared across communities and demographics before the team changes products, assortment, displays, or messaging. Each source corrects a weakness in the others: conversation supplies context, service reveals lived friction, and observation exposes behavior customers may not articulate. The result is a richer evidence base for customer and retention decisions.
Origin
Jeff Lee described personally receiving customer-service calls and visiting stores across the United States to watch how Dibs Beauty customers shop. Extracted from The Foundr Podcast.
Core principles
- 01The founder is not automatically the customer
- 02Surveys cannot replace substantive customer conversations
- 03Observed behavior reveals friction that stated preferences may miss
- 04Service interactions are a continuing source of product and loyalty signals
- 05Customer patterns should be interpreted within communities and demographics
How to run it
- 1
Separate self from customer
List the demographic, geographic, and lifestyle differences between the decision-maker and the actual buyer. Use this gap as a reminder to seek evidence rather than project preferences.
Pro tip Name the target customer's context in operational terms, not as a vague persona.
Watch out Being enthusiastic about the product does not make the founder representative of its buyers.
- 2
Capture service reality
Create a route for founders or product leaders to hear recurring order problems, questions, and direct messages. Log themes rather than treating each contact as an isolated ticket.
Pro tip Review both practical failures and moments that create loyalty.
Watch out Founder access must not become a fragile replacement for a functioning support team.
- 3
Hold lifestyle conversations
Ask customers how the product fits their routines, constraints, and relationships. Go beyond forced-choice questions about individual attributes.
Pro tip Ask for a recent concrete shopping or usage story.
Watch out Do not treat a survey response as the full truth of customer behavior.
- 4
Observe natural behavior
Watch customers encounter the category without immediately identifying yourself or steering them toward the product. Record approaches, pauses, trials, expressions, questions, and abandoned choices while respecting privacy and store policies.
Pro tip Notice who shops with the customer and how that person affects the decision.
Watch out Observation should be ethical, nonintrusive, and compliant with the retailer's rules.
- 5
Cluster the evidence
Compare recurring patterns within meaningful demographic, community, or geographic groups. Distinguish isolated anecdotes from repeated behavior.
Pro tip Look for the same friction appearing in service logs, conversations, and store behavior.
Watch out Do not generalize one store visit to the whole market.
- 6
Change the right lever
Decide whether the evidence points to a product, assortment, display, education, or messaging problem. Make a focused change and return to customers to see whether behavior improves.
Pro tip Use the smallest change that tests the interpretation.
Watch out Collecting customer evidence without changing decisions turns proximity into theater.
In the wild
Lee said he watches how shoppers approach Dibs displays, which shelf they reach for, what they try, what they put down, and whether they arrive with a mother or daughter. He uses those observations to infer familiarity, education needs, and assortment implications, alongside direct conversations and service contacts.
→ The observations informed Dibs Beauty's product, marketing, education, and brand decisions, according to Lee.
Illustrative application: a cookware founder reviews support questions about pan seasoning, interviews recent buyers about weeknight routines, and watches consenting in-store research participants compare pan weight and handles. The same concern—confidence using the product—appears in all three sources.
→ The team tests clearer demonstrations and handling guidance instead of guessing that price is the main barrier.
Common mistakes
Assuming you are the customer
Founder intuition can overwrite meaningful differences in geography, generation, routine, and shopping behavior.
Replacing conversation with surveys
Structured answers can miss the customer's lifestyle context and can leave both parties focused on the wrong question.
Steering the observed shopper
Announcing the founder's presence or pushing the product changes the natural behavior the research is meant to reveal.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for consumer brands whose products are evaluated physically, socially, or in a retail environment.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as a substitute for representative quantitative research or for covert observation that violates store rules or customer privacy.
From the transcript
“I am not our customer.”
“Never use surveys as a substitute for substantive conversations with your customers in the store”
“there's no substitute to those pieces of data 22 30 and understanding on top of the ongoing conversation and relationship with the customer”
From the episode
613: Why Most Beauty Brands Fail - and How to Beat The Rest