Heard the Adage that Customers Don’t Know What They Want? It’s Malarkey.

The belief that customers don’t know what they want and have latent unarticulated needs is so well entrenched in corporate America that most people don’t even question it.

The problem is – it’s not true.

People have been misled. The reason people believe this hackneyed bromide is because they don’t really understand what a customer need really is. They confuse needs with solutions.

Customer needs are separate and distinct from the solutions that are developed to address them. Understanding the difference will help you create new product or service offerings that solidly connect with customers and avoid costly mistakes.

Here’s the key truth that helps us understand what a customer need really is: People buy products and services to get jobs done. The job to be done is the customer need.

For example, people hire accountants to prepare their taxes, iPods to listen to music, drills to make a hole, and dog food to feed their dog. While it is true that people often cannot tell us what they want from a solution, they can tell us what they want to get done.

People often quote Henry Ford’s famous quip – “If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” – as proof that customers don’t know what they want. But remember, the solution (a horse, car, train, etc.) is not the need (the job to be done).

The question for customers is not, “What do you want?” because people do speak in terms of solutions and yet they are often no more qualified to come up with solutions to their needs than medical patients are qualified to come up with their own treatment plans.

The question is, “What do you want to get done?” If Mr. Ford had asked customers, “What do you want to get done with a horse?” he would quickly have learned that people want to transport themselves, others, and goods from point A to point B. This is the core job to be done, the core need. All the various solutions that have been developed – the horse, car, train, etc. – are solutions that have evolved to help people get this job done better.

Another supposed “proof” that customers have latent unarticulated needs goes like this:

“No customer could have told you that they wanted an iPod or a microwave oven.”

At first, this may sound quite convincing because it’s true – no customer could have articulated these solutions.

But that’s my point – these are solutions, not needs. People don’t want an iPod; they want to listen to recorded music. And people don’t want to buy a microwave oven either; they want to cook food. The microwave oven is a solution that has been developed to address the need, helping consumers cook food. Not only can customers tell us that they want to cook food, but they can quite clearly describe the metrics they use to determine the successful execution of this job, such as:

• Minimize the time it takes to cook the food.
• Minimize the likelihood of overcooking the food.
• Minimize the likelihood that the food is not cooked evenly throughout.
• Minimize the time it takes to clean up after cooking the food.

The fact is, customers can tell us what jobs they are trying to get done and how they measure success. This flies in the face of the so-called experts who insist that customers have latent unarticulated needs. This is simply false if we focus on the job customers are trying to get done rather than the product’s requirements.

If you can understand the underlying jobs that your customers are trying to do – and you can – then you can help them get those jobs done better.

The proper focus for innovation is devising ways to help target customers get a job done better, not coming up with better solutions. What jobs are your customers trying to accomplish with your product or service? Find out and help them get those jobs done better.

(This article first appeared in Columbus Business First, Heard the adage that customers don’t know what they want? It’s malarkey.)