Walks on West Cliff
The Importance of Customer Experience in Hardware Product Development
I recently enjoyed a walk along West Cliff with William Mintun, former Co-founder of b8ta and former Principal Customer Experience Engineer at Humane. William shared his insights on the importance of Customer Experience (CX) in hardware product development:
Insight 1: Customer Experience as a Product
“Customer experience isn’t what happens after you ship a hardware product. It’s just as important as the materials you choose and the software that powers it—it is part of the product. If you’re not designing CX into the product from day one, you’re building something incomplete. A poor post-sales experience can do more damage to your brand than a manufacturing defect. If you treat support like a cost center instead of a design input, you’re not building a product — you’re launching a liability.”
Insight 2: On Using AI in a Customer Experience Context
“The biggest risk with AI isn’t hallucination — it’s using it with the wrong intentions. If you’re just chasing cost savings, you’ll end up making decisions that leave customers worse off. AI won’t fix a broken CX flow, but it can show you where it’s leaking. It’s great at triage: automate the simple stuff, route the complex issues, and spot the gaps between what customers need and what you’re delivering. The real work is knowing where AI can actually improve the experience — faster, clearer, more consistent. Because in the end, your brand depends on keeping that person on your side.”
💡 What are your thoughts on integrating CX and AI in hardware product development?
