[jtmcmc]

as someone who did support for years and now does engineering I think this is so correct. Support is listening to customers, not only that they are listening to a LOT.

I think it's valuable for engineers to talk to customers but they and product should also actually listen to support - they are probably telling you a large majority of the pain points your customers are experiencing.

also - and another major thing - make sure you have a way for support folks to become engineers, product managers, designers, etc... in my (clearly biased) opinion this often results in an engineering / product department with a deep understanding of your customers needs in its bones