Your Next Big Idea Might Come from Your Customers
Trend reports, market predictions and the latest technology are important when you’re trying to generate new ideas. In fact, most innovation teams feast on these inputs, as they offer inspiration at the highest level. Unfortunately, these same teams often overlook the more tangible, virtually bottomless well of inspiration standing in front of them: their customers.
Sure, we’ve all heard the Henry Ford adage about people wanting faster horses (even though he didn’t really say it), and it’s true that the average person isn’t very good at conjuring images of things they want before those things actually exist.
But your customers can tell you what you do really well and what they wish you did better. They can tell you what is causing them frustration today and what they aspire to be able to do in the future. Most importantly, they can help you understand the larger context of their lives into which your brand fits, so that all of that high-level inspiration can be applied to real-life situations. And not only can customers help you generate ideas, they can also help you identify bad ideas faster than anyone inside your company.
It’s smart for companies of all sizes to include customers in the innovation process. Here are a few simple ways to get started:
Watch people use your product. Mobile ethnography platforms make it simple and efficient for internal teams to watch real customers use real products in real-life settings (not usability labs) so you can see first-hand what works, what doesn’t, and capture in-the-moment reactions. And you can do the same with your competitors’ products.
Ask people to invent their dream product. Typically we ask this question as part of broader consumer studies. The actual product a consumer “invents” is less important than the unmet needs they express in the process - for example, the fantasy of a machine that magically produce cupcakes might be less about the cupcakes and more about the desire for comfort food, on-demand, without leaving home.
Create a customer advisory panel. You know you have loyal customers. Make it official by asking them to opt-in to provide regular input on trends, new products, or recent brand experiences. Your customers get to feel like insiders and your organization gets easy, efficient access to real customer insight. An experienced research partner can help you put your advisory panel to good use for your organization.
Ready to find out what your customers are thinking? Let’s talk.
