Today my tutor referred me to a quote. A quote from Henry Ford, the one of the greatest person in automotive industry.
Henry Ford quoted “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
The danger of this kind of comment and the quote from Henry Ford is that it perpetuates the myth that innovation is somehow uninvolved or disassociated with customers. In these models, you’re supposed to be somehow smarter than your customers, swoop down, and save the day.
Instead, I think that innovation occurs from a deep understanding of your customers—their problems, their needs, expressed or unexpressed. Suppose that Henry had asked a customer “What do you want” and the customer has answered “I want a faster horse”. I’m willing to bet that Henry, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, would have explored this a bit further, perhaps using the 5-Why’s approach to root cause analysis.
Henry: “Why do you want a faster horse?”
Customer: “So I can get to the store in less time.”
Henry: “Why do you want to get to the store faster?”
Customer: “So I can get more work done at the farm.”
Customer: “So I can get to the store in less time.”
Henry: “Why do you want to get to the store faster?”
Customer: “So I can get more work done at the farm.”
Oh. So the customer didn’t want a faster horse. And you didn’t even need five questions to find out what they did want. They wanted to get more work done. And presumably the car that Henry created provided that benefit.
Net? Don’t let pithy quotes let you fool yourself into thinking that you don’t have to understand your customers. You do. It is a matter of how to get from A to B question again.
