Don't listen to your customers: Working with a task based approach to innovation

Traditional market research methods result in an 80% failure rate in innovation. A better approach is not to listen to what customers say they want but rather to concentrate on the tasks customers want to fulfil, thus shifting the focus onto more observable and objective ways of identifying customer needs.

Don't listen to your customers: Working with a task based approach to innovation

Lubna KhanJWT, New Delhi

Introduction

We all know about products that were launched with extensive consumer research validating them at each stage of the development process, but still failed in the market. Every year, companies spend millions of dollars trying to understand customer needs in a bid to innovate and unlock growth. Yet despite the heavy investment in research, and in the actions taken on the basis of the 'customer needs' identified, new products fail, advertising and promotion efforts go unheeded and businesses shut down.

The...

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