Heard The Adage That Customers Dont Know What They Want

Heard the adage that customers don’t know what they want? It’s malarkey, by Urquhart (Urko) Wood, Ohio Practice Lead, Strategyn Consulting

Published: November 18, 2010

The belief that customers don’t know what they want and have latent unarticulated needs is so well entrenched in corporate America that most people don’t even question it.

The problem is it’s not true.

People have been misled. The reason people believe this hackneyed bromide is because they don’t understand what a customer need really is. They confuse needs with solutions.

Customer needs are separate and distinct from the solutions that are developed to address them. Understanding the difference will help you create new product or service offerings that solidly connect with customers and avoid costly mistakes.

Here’s the key truth that helps us understand what a customer need really is: People buy products and services to get jobs done. The job to be done is the customer need.

For example, people hire accountants to prepare their taxes, iPods to listen to music, drills to make a hole, and dog food to feed their dog. While it is true that people often cannot tell us what solution they want, they can tell us what they want to get done.

People often quote Henry Ford’s famous quip “If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” as proof that customers don’t know what they want. But remember, the solution (a horse, car, train, etc.) is not the need (the job to be done).

The question for customers is not, “What do you want?” because people do speak in terms of solutions and yet they are often no more qualified to come up with solutions to their needs than medical patients are qualified to come up with their own treatment plans.

The question is, “What do you want to get done?” If Mr. Ford had asked customers, “What do you want to get done with a horse?” he would quickly have learned that people want to transport themselves, others, and goods from point A to point B. This is the core job to be done, the core need. All the various solutions that have been developed - the horse, car, train, segway, etc. - are solutions that have evolved to help people get this job done better.

Another supposed proof that customers have latent unarticulated needs goes like this: No customer could have told you that they wanted an iPod or a microwave oven.

At first, this may sound quite convincing because it’s true no customer could have articulated these solutions.

But that’s my point these are solutions, not needs. People don’t want an iPod; they want to listen to recorded music. And people don’t want to buy a microwave oven either; they want to cook food. The

microwave oven is a solution that has been developed to address the need, helping consumers cook food. Not only can customers tell us that they want to cook food, but they can quite clearly describe the metrics they use to determine the successful execution of this job, such as:

• Minimize the time it takes to cook the food.

• Minimize the likelihood of overcooking the food.

• Minimize the likelihood that the food is not cooked evenly throughout.

• Minimize the time it takes to clean up after cooking the food.

The fact is, customers can tell us what jobs they are trying to get done and how they measure success, what we call their desired outcomes. This flies in the face of the so-called experts who insist that customers have latent unarticulated needs, but this is simply not true once the focus is placed on the job customers are trying to get done rather than the products requirements.

If you can understand the underlying jobs that your customers are trying to do - and you can - then you can help them get more jobs done or a specific job done better.

This is the proper focus of innovation. Making a better product, service, or technology is just a means to this end.

What jobs are your customers trying to accomplish with your product or service? Find out and help them get those jobs done better.

Urquhart (Urko) Wood is the Ohio Practice Lead for Strategyn Consulting, an innovation and growth strategy consulting firm. He can be reached at: uwood@strategyn.com | 614-895-7680

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