This statement would seem to go against what most sales trainers will tell you. “Voice of Customer” (or VOC as its known) is usually invoked when people are trying to get product designers to put in new features.
I made an unusual statement recently to a group of designers at Sunlogics when I was travelling with them at a trade show. I said “I have never given a customer what they first told me they wanted”.
Further evidence that product development teams really need to do a “rethink” of how they approach their mandates is in this article. The reality exposed here is that we often think we must add features in order to get more traction with customers. I liken this to the “all in one” approach in product design that some people took with early portable solar mobile phone chargers. Its a slicer, dicer, pruner, juicer…all in one :). All this did was to confuse the customer. Yet logical thinking would say “but they just got one more thing than they had before. Why are they not buying more?”. Simply put, keep it simple.
Whether you are developing a solar powered charging canopy or a solar powered mobile phone charger, the rules apply just the same. When getting voice of customer, use more than one voice. It can be skewed to its own personal taste and it won’t always give you the right answer.
Customers expect us to know more than they do. They will approach questions with an angle because of who is asking it. So they depend on visionaries whose theories are to be tested all along the product development lifecycle to lead them to “the promised land”.
Companies need vision from the top. When that is lacking, you can bet that chaos will reign. So if you’re doing business with a company whose vision is murky, you can bet that within that company there is much turmoil. A leader’s job is to express and install a common vision amongst its team. Then he/she must let that team deliver on it. This doesn’t mean a guiding hand is not needed (aka Steve Jobs), yet empowering a team with the right product development mentality comes from the top.
Sass