239: How to Build a "Customer Advisory Board" and Create a Frictionless Customer Experience with Mandy Dwight (Dwight & Co.) and Anthony Leo (IPR Robotics)

Manufacturing Happy Hour · 3 Jun 2025 · 50m

What this episode covers

Anthony Leo, President of IPR Robotics, and Mandy Dwight, Founder of Dwight & Co., discuss how to build a customer advisory board and create a frictionless customer experience. They draw on their shared history at Rethink Robotics, where they worked on the Baxter and Sawyer collaborative robots, to explain the importance of validating product ideas with customers before development. The conversation covers the pitfalls of focusing on technical specs over value propositions, the need for large companies to adopt startup-like agility, and strategies for reducing sales friction.

Mentioned

Companies
IPR Robotics, Dwight & Co., Rethink Robotics, Norgren, Soft Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Kuka, Dexterity
Products
Baxter, Sawyer
Also
Bean Town Pub, Lafayette Coney, American Coney

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