Offer to solve customer problems manually in exchange for structured feedback calls
When customers contact you with problems your product can't solve, offer to do the work for free on a call with them. Use the call to ask detailed questions about what they like, dislike, and want from your product. This turns support requests into deep product discovery without formal user research programs.
When to use
When you're getting support emails or feature requests that fall outside your current product scope. Best for products where you can manually deliver what might eventually be automated.
Don't do this
Simply explaining what your product can't do and ignoring the request. You miss critical product evolution signals and leave the customer unsatisfied.
1 Founder Who Did This
Got one email per week from users sending Excel files with problems formula generator couldn't solve. Offered to solve problems for free but required phone calls where he asked about product feedback and feature ideas.