It’s ok to take the tiny soaps from hotels, right?

When I started attending conferences, I was just a young dev who needed a bed for a few hours of zzzs.

The other amenities didn’t matter to me then. But I’ve come to appreciate the little things, like those mini bars of soap.

It hadn’t occurred to me where those little toiletries come from until I read the story of Lara Morgan, founder of Pacific Direct. She built a huge company that supplied some of the world’s best hotels with those teensy amenities.

Morgan identified a gap in the hospitality market. Fancy hotels would pay a little more for high-quality, branded products.

She started bringing samples and brochures to hotels in central London. But she didn’t ask to speak to the general manager, assistant manager, or even guest relations leaders.

Lara went to the basement. She talked to the housekeeping staff, who directly handled amenities for guests.

Firstly, she learned a lot from these conversations. It told her the real problems that she could help the hotel solve. That’s more powerful than “my soap is better.”

Even at top hotels, you won’t find checkbooks in the basement. But Lara built trust with the people who could influence what was purchased.

With persistence and the desire to help them solve guest problems, Lara eventually secured a sale with the famed Dorchester Hotel. And that made it easier to make sales to other hotels.

But no sale was possible without those trips to the basement, where she could get the real scoop from housekeepers.

Maybe you’ve already found the developer lessons here:

Listen for feedback. Solve real problems.

You can be “developer-first,” assuming you know what it means.

It’s not my favorite term because it can be interpreted in multiple ways. How you define it for your company will affect the types of interactions you have with a developer audience.

I will dig into these meanings in an upcoming post, but here are ​nine ways you can put developers first​ now.

Lara Morgan was housekeeping-first with sewing kits, shower caps, and itty bitty soaps. Could the same approach with your product?