The customers know best - do they?

Do companies that use focus groups develop the most successful products?

The answer is probably no. Gathering together a cross section of customers to determine the specification for a new product development is unlikely to result in a sure fire success. While customers can usefully comment on existing products or on even advanced prototypes, they are unlikely to provide the key to a winning concept. Similarly designing by committee can be a recipe for disaster, especially when it is composed of company delegates from around the world. I have seen too many such meetings where a shopping list of features is drawn up to incorporate pretty much every local quirk and oddity that some how have to be delivered in a product that actually works. Not only is a new product developed from this unpromising start likely to be burdened with a heap of features that are little understood or appreciated outside the country that asked for them, but the new products will still be much the same as what already exists. It might tick a lot of customer requested boxes, but thanks to all the bells and whistles also be more expensive.

The thing is customers are conditioned by what they are used to now, so their input tends to be for improvements - gradual evolution, not innovation. It is unlikely they will be familiar with new enabling technologies or advanced manufacturing methods that could actually revolutionise the market. Back in the 1960s Thorn Lighting, better known then for its mass market products such as Atlas and Mazda branded lamps, suddenly stormed into the theatre lighting market with Q-File - an electronic lighting control that immediately challenged Strand Electric the incumbent market leader. Developed originally together with dimmers that are often now forgotten, the landmark system was very much the brain child of Thorn's Tony Isaacs and his team. I worked with Tony on various electronic products in later years and understood they learned what was needed by spending night after night in control rooms observing, noting and learning.  In the boom years of construction during the 1950s and 1960s Thorn had grown rapidly with their Pop Pack fluorescent lighting package being responsible for much of the success. Prior to Pop Pack it was normal to buy lamps - the light sources - and fittings (luminaires) from different suppliers. Thorn simply put the two together in a single pack from a single supplier, then invested heavily in production plant that ensured they were also the lowest cost producer. Again it was a game changer.

Today Steve Jobs and Apple are classic examples of not only telling customers what they want, but creating a massive desire for their products. Nokia and others were dominant mobile phone manufacturers who probably carefully monitored what other phone makers were up to but didn't expect the challenge to come from a specialist computer manufacturer. Any more that is than the music industry expected the Apple Store and iPods to revolutionise music sales and create a whole new class of product.

So asking customers what they want is probably unlikely to result in a game changing product. Studying the markets and marrying actual needs and benefits with new technologies and production methods may prove more successful.