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Adin Halapic

Listen to your customer - but don’t always take them literally


"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses". 

This famous quote, attributed to automotive pioneer Henry Ford, is often cited by entrepreneurs who consider themselves as visionaries. They don’t merely react to people’s needs; they shape them, creating products their customers did not even realise they desperately wanted. 


By claiming that Ford did not prioritise his customers’ needs, they suggest that, for true innovation, those needs are secondary.



User Centricity means solving an actual problem


At first glance this interpretation of Ford’s statement seems accurate. After all, in the early 20th century, few could have imagined that cars would become as ubiquitous as they are today. But first impressions can be misleading. So let us take a closer look at the role of customer feedback in product development applying a more fundamental approach and start with the most basic question: What is the purpose of any product? 


A product should solve problems that people actually have.


Thus, the first step in building a good product is identifying and understanding these problems. 


While people may not always excel at solving problems themselves, they are often excellent at articulating their pain points. To solve these issues effectively, it is crucial to listen carefully and fully grasp their concerns, resisting the temptation to jump to hasty conclusions or premature solutions.



User needs over technology


A more user centric approach to innovation, as proposed by Steve Jobs, reinforces this point: “... you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards for the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it.” 


True innovation doesn’t emerge from focusing solely on what’s technologically possible; it begins with the customer experience.


Taking this customer centric approach a step further, innovation is not only about listening and understanding - it is also about anticipating customer needs. This requires empathy. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has championed this philosophy, stating “Empathy makes us better innovators. If you look at the most successful products we have created, it comes from us having a deep sense of empathy about the unmet needs of our customers.”



User contact as early as possible


From my personal experience in product development, it is essential to involve potential customers as early as possible and maintain close contact throughout the development process. The more exposure you have to your target audience from the start, the better you will understand their needs and mindset. This allows you to quickly validate which features or ideas resonate with them.


On the other hand the more time you spend without validating or challenging your ideas the more likely you are to fall in the trap of confirmation bias. It is much easier and more efficient to test ideas early than to invest significant resources in a product, only to realise later that major changes are needed. This approach will save both time and resources.  



Did Ford succeed without user centricity?


Back to Henry Ford. What did he actually do? He recognized the core problem his customers faced: They needed a faster way to travel but had limited budgets. The car had already been invented, but it was out of reach for most people.


Ford saw the technological possibilities and revolutionised the industry by figuring out how to produce a car that was affordable for the masses, introducing assembly line production to scale manufacturing efficiently.


In essence, successful innovators understand that the primary purpose of any product is to solve real customer problems. To create meaningful products, they must not only comprehend the challenges customers face but also anticipate future needs through empathy. This insight is then translated into practical, innovative solutions. 


When we take a closer look at Henry Ford’s famous quote, we can see that he listened to his customers, but he did not take them literally.

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