Consumer Focused vs. Consumer Driven

I recently found myself in an interesting dialogue with a colleague. I mentioned that successful innovation stems from being focused on the consumer. He agreed but within moments mentioned the phrase “consumer-driven”. I pointed out that I disagreed with him on this, and a perplexed look immediately crossed his face. “But you just said…”, he stated, thinking he was merely restating my original premise. After much discussion, we agreed that this is much more than semantics.

Voice of the Consumer (VOC) research is consumer driven. Purists of this tool insist that anything spoken by a consumer be captured verbatim, and maintained as such throughout the ideation and development process. The belief here is that if you deliver on what consumers say they want, you will be wildly successful. In other words, develop a process where the consumers “drive” what it is provided to the marketplace.

I don’t buy it. I have seen too many focus groups and one on one interviews where the researcher asks consumers “If you could have anything you want, what would you ask for?” That “ground-breaking” question is more often than not met with a room full of blank stares. If answers are provided, they typically reflect an existing product that has been seen by the respondent, but not owned.

The fundamental flaw with “consumer driven” is that your average consumer is not an inventor, a dreamer, or a visionary. Unlike product managers, their world does not revolve around specific products or categories.

Now contrast that with “consumer focused” innovation. To focus on something is to pay it special attention and to understand it from as many perspectives as possible. That still involves interaction with the consumer, but it is not limited to their exact requests. I can learn as much about a person sometimes from what they don’t say as from what they do say. I seldom conduct a contextual interview but what I see people contradicting their own words with their actions. Seeing what they own, how they live, how they entertain themselves, how they interact with their families or communities can all be very telling in understanding what new product or service would best resonate with them.

As product developers and marketers, we need to embrace this. If we allow consumers to drive our efforts, we will be limited to the types of incremental improvements that they can readily envision. We’re the experts on our businesses. Let’s understand our consumers and the true needs they have. Then we can develop breakthrough products that truly delight them!

Innovation is Painful

There is one thing that all companies have in common... They're run by people. As people, we have an inborn aversion to pain. Granted, there is a difference in pain tolerance levels from person to person, but when you get right down to it, most of us will go out of our way to avoid pain, regardless if its physical, emotional or spiritual.

So we manage our lives and our businesses with this mindset; do what feels good, and avoid what doesn't. We may know we need to change (ourselves or our business), but significant, lasting change is unpleasant. So, we mollify ourselves with incremental improvements and hope for a brighter future. But this behavior seldom allows us to achieve our long term goals.

Sometimes life throws us into a situation where we have no alternative but to accept significant, permanent change. The loss of a loved one, serious illness, economic downturns, natural disasters are all examples of instances where we are cast into dramatic change in an instant. Forced, unplanned change may or may not lead to a stronger, more positive outcome. Sometimes it's more than a person can take, and they crumble under the pressure. Other people (like carbon under extreme pressure) come out shining like a diamond. In either instance, we're talking about transformation, not an incremental distinction.

What does it take to voluntarily put ourselves through the type of extreme risk and discomfort that can lead to breakthrough innovation? We must have the faith that the place we want to be is worth the cost of getting there. These goals must be something that we buy into at a very deep level. It's one thing to want to subtly improve a business. It's quite another to want to transform a business from an also-ran into an industry leader. Innovation requires boldness.

Just like life, sometimes its an outside influence that forces us into this decision. When faced with business catastrophe (restated as "the current recession"), what do you choose? Endure the pain, make the necessary changes and come out stronger, or fold under the pressure and move on?

Is it any wonder that so many talk about innovation, but so few actually do it?

Comfort Zone - In or Out?

Comfort zones are a fascinating concept. We all have them, yet no two are identical. They are formed by a combination of our upbringing, our life experiences and our aptitude for adventure (or lack thereof).

Over the weekend, I won some tickets to the Indy Fringe Theater Festival. Part of the prize package included a nights stay at a local bed & breakfast. At breakfast, my wife & I struck up a conversation with one of the performers (also staying there). When he found out that this was our first Fringe, he encouraged us to "get out of your comfort zone". I have a long-standing love for theater, so I couldn't imagine being challenged in this regard, but I found it to be an interesting comment.

As we attended numerous shows over the weekend, we did find ourselves out of our proverbial zone. Traditionally "taboo" topics, unexpected nudity and alternative lifestyles all came together in a perfect storm of oddness...

Don't get me wrong, we had a fantastic weekend, and found it to be very entertaining. But parts of it were challenging. I don't see adopting a new lifestyle now or parading around the office naked, but the experience did cause me to think differently, and I believe that is always good.

As innovators, we have our own comfort zones. It's very tough to create bold new products or services if we allow ourselves to remain within them. However, we also have to realize that our target consumers have their own comfort zones, and the reality is most won't buy products that fall outside of them. Close-out stores are filled with products that were too "out-there" to resonate with anyone specifically.

So what does this all mean? This is just more evidence that we really must recognize that our wants & needs are most likely different from our customers'. It will probably cause us some discomfort to find the zone that most resonates with them.

Switching to Wordpress

I have decided to switch this blog to wordpress from blogspot. The new address is jmccolgin.wordpress.com. If you have subscribed to this feed please make the change so that you can continue to receive new updates. I welcome your feedback on the new site. Please let me know what you think!

Having faith in your business...

In spite of the projected upturns in the economy, it seems that the news remains filled with companies (both large and small) going under. It grows increasingly tougher to remain optimistic about the future, when the present seems to only get worse. How do we discipline ourselves to do the right things now, so that we will be around when the economy does rebound?

I watched a movie over the weekend called Faith Like Potatoes. While it is primarily a Christian themed movie, it had a lot of tremendous applications for a business during a tough environment.

During these times, we all hear a lot of advice; better not spend any money, don't take any undue risks, delay any investments until times get better. And it's very tempting to follow these well-meaning suggestions. But the reality is, looking at our business in this way can take away the rewards that we should be striving for down the road.

In the movie (based on a true story), Angus, the main character, plants potatoes (a highly profitable, though somewhat risky crop) in a time of drought. Everyone told him he was crazy, that he would lose everything as a result. It drove those around him crazy that they couldn't see the progress of the potatoes as they grew underground. Those that went the "safe" route and planted corn could see their progress throughout the season. But Angus believed that he had done the right thing and would be rewarded when it was the time for harvest.

What potatoes are you planting? What investments are you making simply because you "know" its the right thing to do. In reality, we all operate in faith to some degree. We believe the sun will rise and set, we believe our employees will come to work, we believe that if we work hard we'll be successful. Why is it that so many remove faith from critical portions of their business?

More than ever, we need to believe that our companies will survive, and potentially thrive once again. With that in mind, we need to be equipping ourselves for the future, not just burying our heads in the sand to survive the present. Even if like potatoes, our investments are growing unseen in the near-term, we need to believe that doing the right things now will pay off in the future.

Sometimes it's about the journey

I'll admit it. I'm an impatient person. I like to get to where I'm going as quickly as possible. That's true for my Vision, my goals, and typically - even my road trips. So I was not initially excited when my wife "kidnapped" me this past week and told me we were going on a road trip.

Work has been stressful for awhile, and I've probably been less jovial than usual. Our 27th wedding anniversary is coming up, and she told me that we were going to escape life for a few days and head out to Gatlinburg, TN. I couldn't imagine what could be in Gatlinburg that was more important than what I was facing at work, but she persisted and we went.

My first reaction was to pull up Google Maps and determine the most direct route to get there. But along the way she insisted that we leave the Interstate and just drive through the countryside. Despite my discomfort in doing this, I went along with her request. And after awhile, it occurred to me that it was the journey that was important in this case. The experience of getting there. We stopped at a winery, toured a distillery and even ate at the birthplace of KFC.

Unlike most things I do in life, there was no agenda, no start or finish time and no due dates. It was just a time to be together and to take in the scenery. Why is it that this type of experience is so rare in our time-stressed culture? I have European friends that regularly take the entire month of August to just explore a new country or region. But we're so busy being busy that it seldom occurs to us.

We work with consumers all the time. They all complain that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done. Products that make them more efficient are highly desired, as they imagine gaining more free time through the use of them. In reality, if we could free up 30% of a person's time, how long would it stay unstructured?

Maybe the biggest unmet need people have is not simply a new product, but a change in perspective. Maybe we should focus on helping more people just enjoy the journey...

What is your account balance?

It's an interesting time to be a small business owner. The economy remains slow, spending is tight, paying clients are few and far between. And yet, it's times like these where you involuntarily begin to reap what you've sown. You see the investment that you've made in relationships coming back to you (either positively or negatively).

I had a tough conversation with our landlord this morning. I explained that cash flow is tight, and while we've done all the belt-tightening we can we're still looking at a couple of very lean months in the immediate future. I wasn't sure how he was going to take it, but he was more than willing to work out a win-win solution that helps us in the near term, while protecting his interest in the long term. He is a small-business man himself, appreciates the nature of our business and understands the value in keeping us both afloat.

Not surprisingly, I had a similar conversation with my staff. They tell me that they buy into our direction and are willing to make near term sacrifices for the long-term good of both themselves and the company. I am blessed to have a staff that is willing to reduce their pay now, while trying to drum up business for the future. In talking with other small business owners, I realize this is not the norm.

Even some of our clients have gone above and beyond to find opportunities to pay us, strictly to keep us in business. They realize it is in their best interest to have us around when the economy recovers, so they're helping us now.

My takeaway from this is simple - a tough economy really challenges more than your retirement fund. The "return" you get now is dependent on the investment in relationships that you made during the good times. Those whom you invested in are there for you now. Those that you didn't, have already either vanished, or are now calling in their chips.

You can't wait until you are in crisis mode to inspire your employees. You can't suddenly call on a client to help you out, if you've been only a vendor in their eyes. You can't expect a landlord to delay a few months of rent payment if he doesn't even know you by name. The time to do these things are when business is going smoothly.

If life is like a giant bank account, I'm certainly making a lot of withdrawals these days. Thank God I focused on deposits when things were better...