Great companies do not achieve longevity or meaningful growth simply by chasing innovation or lofty strategic visions. Alok Chanani, CEO of BuildOps, argues that the distinctive trait shared by enduring businesses is proximity to real customer problems and a willingness to address them with humility and direct interaction. This emphasis on understanding customer workflow and pain points shapes product development, organizational alignment, and long-term success.
Learning from Airbnb and BuildOps
Chanani illustrates his point by recalling a pivotal moment from the early days of Airbnb. The platform was struggling because its founders were focused on abstract “business problems” rather than the real experience of their users. When they paused development work and visited hosts in person, they discovered that poor photographs and unclear communication were undermining bookings. By taking better photos and helping hosts tell their stories, the company’s revenue doubled in a month. This shift from remote problem-solving to on-the-ground listening exemplifies how direct engagement with user experience can unlock value that analytical data alone might miss.
This model also shaped Chanani’s own journey with BuildOps, a company he founded after years of working on construction and real estate projects. There, technology often lagged behind the practical needs of field teams, who relied on spreadsheets, texts, and disconnected tools. Chanani’s team spent extensive time embedded with dispatchers and technicians, observing daily workflows to identify friction points and opportunities for improvement. The software they built focused on clarity, communication, and practical utility, features shaped by real operational insights rather than abstract dashboards.
Proximity Over Abstraction
Central to Chanani’s argument is that proximity being close enough to observe real work as it happens, reveals issues that surface-level data cannot. He cautions against designing solutions from afar or for investors’ impressions rather than users’ lived experiences. Dashboards and analytics, while valuable, can mask the daily bottlenecks that define customer frustration: delayed approvals, communication lags, or repetitive manual tasks that impede progress. Great companies, he suggests, build solutions grounded in these insights, not in assumptions or hypothetical personas.
At BuildOps, this philosophy is operationalized by direct, ongoing conversations between product leaders and actual users. Engineers and product managers speak regularly with contractors to understand how features perform in real time, informing iterative improvements. Some of the most impactful system enhancements, such as faster asset data capture and clearer dispatch overviews originated not from high-level metrics but from observing the work in action.
Turning Feedback into Action
Customer feedback alone is not enough; it must translate into action. Chanani points out that many organizations fail because feedback travels through layers of reporting, losing nuance and urgency before reaching decision-makers. In contrast, companies that thrive keep feedback loops short, enabling those building products or services to hear problems firsthand and respond quickly. This approach fosters meaningful change and prevents solutions that look good on paper but miss the mark in practice.
Leaders can adopt this mindset by observing real workflows, tracking a problem from beginning to end, and shortening the distance between customer insight and implementation. This does not require sweeping reorganizations or complex strategies. Instead, it demands presence, being where the work happens and understanding the context of problems directly.
Small Changes, Big Impact
The most valuable improvements are often incremental rather than flashy. Reducing friction, clarifying handoffs, and simplifying workflows can deliver more tangible benefits to users than highly polished but abstract features. These modest, practical enhancements can significantly improve daily user experience, reinforcing loyalty and differentiating a company in competitive markets.
A Practical Perspective on Innovation
The insight that proximity drives successful problem-solving offers a grounded perspective on innovation. Too often, companies equate innovation with novelty or feature velocity. Instead, Chanani suggests, lasting value comes from addressing real pain points identified through direct engagement with customers. A product or service that resonates because it makes people’s work easier or more intuitive holds greater promise for long-term relevance than one developed purely through internal strategy sessions or distant analytics.
