At FastCompany's Innovation Uncensored event in San Francisco, Jane Park (Founder and CEO of Julep) spoke about how Julep is creating a new customer experience around beauty products. Specifically, she discussed Julep's customer-centric approach to product development and how they let customers drive major decisions across the business.

Julep started out as a nail salon-but not just any nail salon. Park said that her nail salons aimed to celebrate women and enable conversation more than your run-of-the-mill nail shop. For example, she painstakingly chose the perfect chair for salon guests. This chair allowed two women to comfortably talk even if one was getting a manicure and one was getting a pedicure. Eventually, this business moved online, and nowadays, Julep is producing hundreds of beauty products each year. Park aims to keep that customer focus in her online business, as every product only gets manufactured long-term if customers actually buy it.

The average big beauty brand releases 1-2 products a year. This is mainly due to limited shelf space. For the big brands, adding one new product means subtracting another and disappointing loyal customers who may have been buying that old product for years. Bigger beauty companies release even fewer new items nowadays than they used to. Meanwhile, Julep released 300 different products last year! Why? They're constantly aiming to give customers more of what they want.

Even if your brand doesn't deal in nail polish and lip liner, Park's insights about becoming a customer-focused company could help you think about your business in a new way.

The focus group is dead. Let purchases be your focus group. Park stressed that women may love a beauty product when they try it in a store or focus group. They may even say, "I'd totally buy this!" That enthusiasm might lead a brand to manufacture the product. But Park isn't convinced. She said, "Don't tell me you love the product in a focus group. Buy it." Out of the 300 products they manufacture in a year, they only continue to manufacture those that actually drive sales.

View customers as collaborators instead of consumers. Julep seeks full, transparent feedback from customers-no need for niceties. Park said that occasionally she might love a certain product and think it's perfect, but after she gets real feedback from users, the product gets even better. In addition to listening to online feedback, she hosts "maven meet-ups" for customers where they can share input live. The more opportunities for customer feedback, the more likely you are to get to the real crux of their opinion (and create a better product). Ideas get better with collaboration.

Seek feedback from people outside the organization. Park shared a fascinating story about how Julep improved the user experience of a longstanding tool that most women take for granted: the nail polish brush. Instead of sticking with the status quo brush that we've used for decades, Park wanted to explore ways to make nail polishing easier and more ergonomic, so she brought in engineers (mainly men who reported that they had never before polished their nails) to fix the problem. It worked. Sephora, Nordstrom, and QVC now carry the new revolutionary model. The net truth here is that you may find opportunities to innovate in unexpected places.

Hire people who aren't afraid of messy problems. Park mentioned that she's not afraid to share truly messy issues ahead when interviewing potential new employees. She figures that the right person will hear those complexities and lean in, becoming inspired by opportunities to solve the problems. The wrong person will be scared to roll up his or her sleeves and dive in. Of course you can't share proprietary business secrets with interviewees, but many companies need to heed this advice to be more honest about the real nature of the job when hiring. The employee will figure it out if you end up hiring them anyway.

What's next for Julep? Park envisions more products, more creativity, and even more chances for customers to have an impact on the business. I'm hoping Julep can innovate the experience of polishing your dominant hand's nails with your non-dominant hand soon.