Though the concept of market validation (i.e., go ask prospective customers if they will buy it before you build it) is often a good strategy, this article does illustrate why it's important to be asking the right questions.
However, maybe the lesson is: with truly disruptive technologies it's impossible to predict how the market will receive them.
Exactly, you have to make sure you ask the correct questions.
For instance, before the iPhone was revealed if you had asked prospective smartphone customers if a hardware keyboard was a mandatory requirement you'd probably get close to 100% agreement.
However most customers do not think through the whole design enough to realise what sort of trade-off that would introduce (e.g. smaller screen to accommodate keyboard or less structural integrity due to the need for a slider mechanism etc).
Once the iPhone has been used for a period of time by a user however, I'd guess that less than 5% of users would say a hardware keyboard is a mandatory requirement.
Therefore in such a case you probably asked the wrong question and need to realise when you shouldn't listen to customers answers.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 13.3 ms ] threadHowever, maybe the lesson is: with truly disruptive technologies it's impossible to predict how the market will receive them.
For instance, before the iPhone was revealed if you had asked prospective smartphone customers if a hardware keyboard was a mandatory requirement you'd probably get close to 100% agreement. However most customers do not think through the whole design enough to realise what sort of trade-off that would introduce (e.g. smaller screen to accommodate keyboard or less structural integrity due to the need for a slider mechanism etc).
Once the iPhone has been used for a period of time by a user however, I'd guess that less than 5% of users would say a hardware keyboard is a mandatory requirement.
Therefore in such a case you probably asked the wrong question and need to realise when you shouldn't listen to customers answers.