HiPPO Customers are killing your growth

Grab your coffee, because this one’s close to the chest. Let me tell you about a client I’ll call “BigShot Brands.”

On paper, they had it all, deep pockets, a shiny office, a senior team dripping with credentials.

But right under that gloss was a problem I see far too often in growing companies.

They were building everything, and I mean everything, for one customer: the HiPPO.

Not the animal, though sometimes the temperament matched — but the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.

Every decision, every product feature, every new project? Signed off (or outright dictated) by the boss at the top.

If the HiPPO said jump, the whole room just leapt.

And eventually things went sideways.

One Monday, they called me in, they’d already blown time and money on flashy consultants, launched a couple of half-baked campaigns, even switched platforms hoping it would magically click.

It never did.

That’s the hell of letting HiPPO customers, or any one big stakeholder call all the shots: you end up running a business of one, while the actual customers (the ones paying your bills) walk out the back door.

Fast forward six months.

BigShot’s now got a waitlist for their main product and customer retention running circles around last year’s numbers.

So what changed?

We made one simple shift: We stopped building for the HiPPO.

Instead, we built for real, paying customers.

Every decision ran through actual user data, not gut feelings or org charts.

The HiPPO still had a voice, just not the only one in the room. We put experiments in place, tested small, iterated fast, listened to customer gripes, and voted with evidence, not titles.

Listen, if you’re burning time chasing one “important” customer’s opinion, whether it’s your company’s founder, a client’s CEO, or just that loudest voice in the meeting let this be the sign: It’s time to pivot.

Curious how we did it? Reply “Let’s Talk”

— Shashank