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I\u00a0came across\u00a0this TED Talk\u00a0today by Malcom Gladwell called “What we can learn from spagetti sauce”, which\u00a0I thought was wonderful and I wanted to post it here.\u00a0Basically, it illustrates why there is no single \u00fcber-product which will make all of your users happy. People are diverse by nature, so why would one single\u00a0type of\u00a0product match them all?<\/p>\n
It also reminded me that some time ago during a marketing course I followed for\u00a0my bachelor, I had to read this fantastic article by Anthony W. Ulwick called “Turn customer input into innovation” (I know, I know, not the most creative of titles, but a\u00a0good one\u00a0\u00a0nonetheless), and I’ve been wanting to share it here for quite a while, so I also uploaded a copy of it.<\/p>\n
In a nutshell, Ulwick shows us how\u00a0customers have no idea what kind of new products\u00a0they actually want, so trying to ask them these kind of questions during surveys, focus groups and such in order to innovate your company’s product portfolio\u00a0is futile.\u00a0The common\u00a0user\u00a0is not prepared to take it upon him to generate ideas for\u00a0new products, as most of them lack the\u00a0knowledge\u00a0to fully\u00a0understand the problematics of a certain domain, and as such the only suggestions they will come up with are among the things that they already know and that they can relate to. A quote by Henry Ford illustrates this point wonderfully: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse”.<\/p>\n
So it is up to researchers (and in our case, design researchers) to understand the customers needs and come up with the right product for them. Yes, ask input from your customers, but dont ask them what kind of products they want. Instead, focus on what they would like to achieve and what their goals are, and use this information as a basis for your design process in order to find the right solutions.<\/p>\n
For those wanting to read the article, you can find it by following the link below:<\/p>\n