1 Customer Research: Like Getting a Health Checkup

Have you gotten your annual health checkup yet?
I always feel a bit anxious waiting for the results.
"Sure, everyone has a touch of gastritis, but what if something is lurking that I don't know about?"
At the same time, I hope, "I've been exercising more this year—maybe my blood sugar went down?" Until I open those results, my mind's all over the place.

Waiting for customer research results during product development feels exactly the same.
Hope and worry wash over me simultaneously. "The coverage score might come in a bit low, but maybe the hydration satisfaction will be high?"

"Even if we get low scores, I hope they're things we can fix in time."

This product went through nearly five rounds of customer research, large and small.
Customer feedback is always direct, and sometimes brutally honest.
What stings most isn't hearing "it's bad"—it's hearing "it's just okay." After all that agonizing, to get "it's decent, I guess"...
It feels like getting absolutely demolished by the truth.

Still, it's better to take the hit early. It's far better to hear feedback beforehand and fix things than to listen to it after launch when it's too late.
Sometimes the initial development direction and the actual strengths revealed through research don’t align.
Customers say attribute A is most important, but A turns out to be difficult to improve dramatically, so attribute B—which was our backup—ends up scoring highest.
We also get hints from customer research on detailed points, such as whether the product should be applied by hand, patted on with a puff, or whether we should manufacture and provide a dedicated brush.
Customer research is incredibly stressful at the time, but looking back after launch, the customers were always right.
The results can be painful in the moment, but in the long run, they become a shield. Customer research is like getting a health checkup.

2 The Countdown to Launch

One month before launch, the product enters the final stages of production.
After a long journey through planning, testing, and countless revisions, it finally takes physical form. When the product I've only seen as samples goes into actual production and I hold it in my hands, it feels surreal.
It's not that different from the samples, but knowing that this is really going out into the world, that it'll soon be in customers' hands—suddenly the weight of it all feels completely different.

Of course, this period isn't all excitement. Unexpected situations always pop up on the production line. Sometimes an item unexpectedly fails quality inspection. You might have one team preparing the launch promotion while another team is desperately asking, "When will it clear release approval?"
Around this time, a Brand Manager's morning is spent tackling problems with the factory and QC team, the afternoon is spent revising product page copy with designers, and the evening is spent discussing live stream concepts with the marketing team. Waves of tension and relief crash over you multiple times a day.
Through it all, one thought keeps circling in my head: "This product is really going out into the world." I feel both excited and nervous.
It's like looking out the airplane window just before landing in an unfamiliar city.
I haven't set foot on the ground yet, but the landscape outside is rushing toward me, and excitement and anxiety come flooding in at the same pace.

3 First Encounters with Customers—Communication and Influencers

If a Brand Manager uses data to hypothesize "this product will sell well to this type of customer," a Marketing Communications Manager takes it a step further and digs deeper into "how should we talk to those customers?"
After the lengthy product development journey, market conditions can shift from what they were at the initial planning stage. We might have originally targeted customer group A, but discovered that the product actually appeals more to customer group B.

Communication strategies vary by product. Some color makeup products need to appeal through intuitive "prettiness" that requires no lengthy explanation, while others need to logically convince customers of their differentiation from competitors. For some products, the volume of customer reviews matters most; for others, the quality does. This is how Brand Managers and Marketing Communications Managers collaborate to prepare the finished product for its debut.

These days, influencers are usually the first to showcase new products. Meeting them brings another wave of tension and excitement.
They're not just marketing channels—they're our most highly engaged customers. Experienced influencers can instantly identify which competitor we're targeting without me saying a word. Sometimes they point out blind spots I missed or offer insights we need to address before customer-facing communications.

When I send products as simple sponsorships (unpaid seeding, not ads) and wait for reviews, it feels like waiting for a pen pal's reply.
Like watching a child you've raised finally go out into the world and make new friends. When they recognize the product's strengths, I'm flying high. When they point out weaknesses, my heart sinks.
If an influencer I didn't know raves about it, I instantly become a fan. If they criticize it harshly, I sulk alone and try to let it go. It's a kind of unrequited love.

Now that AI has become mainstream, the level of influencer reviews has gotten much higher.
They analyze formulation design principles and the scientific mechanisms of ingredients—areas previously considered expert-only territory. "Why does darkening occur? Did you include ingredients prone to oxidation?" "I see the XX index decreased. Why did you lower it?" These questions sometimes feel like attacks, but they also become allies that strengthen the product

This elevated baseline of knowledge creates interesting moments.
Beneath a sharp, critical comment, another expert customer might jump in to explain the brand's intention accurately.
At times like these, I'm reminded that just as we're someone's customer, our customers are also professionals with expertise, working somewhere out there.

4 Peak Dopamine—Live Streams and First Reviews

Recently, live-stream launches have become almost formulaic alongside product releases.
Preparing for a live broadcast feels like the old Guerrilla Concert, a Korean TV SHOW. (Does that age me?)
Like when singers would promote all day, then remove their blindfolds on performance day and eagerly turn around to see how many fans showed up.
We've been shouting everywhere during the teasing period—will the audience actually come? Ten minutes before the broadcast starts, my heart starts pounding for no reason.

But once the broadcast begins, the nervousness disappears, and I'm scrambling to keep up with the comments.
Live streams are the most dynamic way to connect with customers. Questions that product pages and ads couldn't answer get resolved, and we greet customers who are meeting the brand for the first time through this product.
For a recent product launch, far more customers joined than expected, and comments flooded in. I was so busy answering comments that I couldn't even watch the actual broadcast, but I understood why those singers cried at the Guerrilla Concert. I felt so grateful that people cared enough to show up.

They say we get hooked on slot machines and short-form content because of the principle of "variable reward."
Each pull of the lever or scroll brings unpredictably different rewards, which supposedly gives us that "dopamine hit."
Reviews are the same for me. These days, with next-day delivery, reviews start appearing immediately. The importance of those initial comments can influence the overall atmosphere, so I scrutinize them almost obsessively. Good reviews make me want to see more; bad reviews make me worry, so I hit refresh again.

When I see "exceeded expectations," my heart soars; when I see "below expectations," my heart drops.
Sometimes I nod along, thinking, "Yeah, I can see how that part might feel weak." Other times, I get annoyed alone, thinking, "Isn't this customer being way too harsh?"