[IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.

[Chris Bernard]

Microsoft uses a lot of focus groups. Take that for what's it worth. From an ideation and concepting perspective I think they have minimal value and can in fact be disruptive, in that they can force you down a prescribed path far too soon. Far better to follow Andrei's advice or even better augment it by watching people. Even one person with a camera and notebook making quite observations can be a great augmentation to structured interviews.

The canonical example of focus groups is New Coke. They focus grouped the heck out of that before they launched.

Chris Bernard
Microsoft
User Experience Evangelist
chris.bernard at microsoft.com
630.530.4208 Office
312.925.4095 Mobile



Blog: www.designthinkingdigest.com
Design: www.microsoft.com/design
Tools: www.microsoft.com/expression
Community: http://www.visitmix.com

"The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed." William Gibson


-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Andrei Herasimchuk
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:17 PM
To: IXDA list
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.


On Mar 27, 2008, at 11:05 AM, <gibbardj at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Your learned opinions are sought.

Don't ask people what they want. Simply ask them what they *think*
they want.

Pause.

Then ask them why.

After that, you're on your own.

--
Andrei Herasimchuk

Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world

e. andrei at involutionstudios.com
c. +1 408 306 6422


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