When you fall in love with your product

February 5, 2010

masscustomization:

I asked her what she thinks the future of mass customization is, and she warned not to be too much in love with the idea of mass customization itself, but rather to think about what the customer wants. She gives the example of their line of CNN headline shirts - the idea of CNN headlines on t-shirts wouldn’t be possible without mass customization, yet its taking it a step further and not just plain mass customization anymore.

This exactly is the problematic feeling I’m facing day after day. I have a beautiful concept, product design or whatever and then he comes: The customer. It’s a deception to think that the customer always knowns what he wants but customer communication - in other words: concept validation - is a must.

From my experience the following approach works best: Do innovation together with potential customers. Try something, present it, discuss possible optimizations (Not to be confused with taking surveys, it’s about communication). Sometimes the customer drifts away into very crazy ideas, far away from the base line of your personal values. This is the only thing that has to be avoided. It’s my product. If I’m not passionate for my product anymore I won’t do it good or even better than anyone else could.

Good point, and thanks for the reblog. What you call “Do innovation together with potential customers” - we call that open innovation (sorry, I worked for a big consulting firm and just love buzzwords to hang myself on). And I completely agree with what you say. Innovation has to come from both sides - I bet very few people would have said 6 years ago “I want a website that allows me to share my private information with my 530 closest friends” - but once it’s there, it’s adapted, not by everyone immediately. At the same time, your idea/product must evolve - with the customer giving constant feedback.

Thank you for your thoughts!

9:28am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEiMQyMCWZf
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