From summer internships at the start of her career to her current position as VP of Product, UX Design, and Research for on-demand employee pay platform DailyPay, Dar Miranda has always had a passion for championing customer needs through intelligent analytics, empathy, and a love of innovation.
Dar’s commitment to being what she describes as “customer obsessed” is so well known at work that Lars Wiedenhoefer, Head of DXI and Observability at DailyPay, told Fullstory CMO Kirsten Newbold-Knipp that they have often joked about her expressing that dedication with a tattoo.
What started as a joke quickly grew into something Dar knew she wanted to do. With the help of Fullstory’s Design team, Dar landed on a tattoo that perfectly illustrates her passion and unveiled it onstage at Fullstory’s inaugural user conference, Spark.
After the event, we sat down with Dar to ask her a few questions about the decision to ink up for customer love.
Hi Dar! So let’s start with the million dollar question: What made you decide to get a tattoo to show your commitment to customers?
There were a lot of things from my personal and professional life that went into my decision to get the tattoo. Despite growing up as a queer kid in a conservative family in Florida where I didn’t always feel like I belonged, I’ve always had a strong sense of self and never really looked to others to define my journey.
That mentality is what pushed me to be successful in product management, a field that frankly didn't exist when I started working in it. By looking inward and following my instincts, I’ve been able to help create amazing experiences for others, experiences that help people through their day-to-day so they can live more fulfilling lives. So I wanted to pay tribute to this drive I have in me that has gotten me so far while at the same time reminding myself to trust my gut and follow what's right.
That’s awesome, and how did you land on a compass?
I love the simplicity of a compass. I like things that appear simple on the surface, but when you think about it, there's a lot of depth in terms of meaning, which fits for both a compass and customer love. The compass is used to navigate the known and unknown, and that’s something I’ve been doing my whole life.
I also consider customer needs to be my professional north star. Prioritizing the customer always points me in the right direction, so having that reminder on my arm pushes me to continually put myself in the customer’s shoes and do my best work. That’s where Fullstory and the “FS” at the center of the compass rose comes in. I’ve been able to tap into and navigate customer experiences so much more with Fullstory, which allows me to connect with and understand people on a much deeper level—so the little Fullstory callout felt like a must.
What does customer love or being “customer obsessed” mean to you?
Being a product person means touching every part of the journey. And while customer centricity is an afterthought or just a nice-to-have for many teams, the truth is this: everything we do, from enhancing a user experience to innovating around new product offerings, has to start from the point of a customer's need. And I'm not talking about surface-level insights—that's not where the real connection is—I'm talking about deep empathy and meaningful understanding. How are customers solving their needs? What are they feeling? Bringing emotions into the conversation matters.
Customer love is making sure you think of and prioritize customer needs every day. It's centering customers in every conversation. That's why we're here.
How do you champion customer love at DailyPay?
At DailyPay, we are all about learning from actual customer experiences. If we aren’t taking the time to hear what our customers need, then we’re doing them a disservice. That’s why we’ve created a culture at DailyPay that is about digging into what our customers say and actually addressing it. I think that alone is a big way we show love to our customers.
We find it easy to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes because DailyPay uses DailyPay. So we get a first-hand look at the product we’re putting out. It’s a great lesson in empathy when you’re using your product in your personal life, too.
What role does Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) play in your customer obsession?
If users aren’t getting what they need, quickly, from your product, you could lose them, and they likely won’t come back. The pressure is a lot higher now to get it right, but you have to know what “get it right” looks like to truly benefit your customers. You can do one-on-one talks with users and surveys, but that only gets you so far. To have a true understanding of how customers experience your product and where friction is, and to get at what they aren’t telling you because they don’t know to tell you, DXI is so important.
For more on how DailyPay harnesses customer insights, watch Dar Miranda and Lars Wiedenhoefer's complete Spark session here.