Dr. Michael Treacy Blatantly Mischaracterizes Voice Of The Customer
Dr. Michael Treacy, Chief Strategist of GEN3 Partners, blatantly mischaracterized the purpose and value of “Voice of the Customer” market research at the 2005 PDMA National Conference Innovation in Product Development. Dr. Treacy stessed that you should “ignore” the Voice of the Customer, because no truly innovative idea has ever come from a customer.
Huh? Ignore market research? Customers are not innovative? What nonsense is this?
The point of market research is to help you understand your customer. There are many market research techniques. One class of techniques is generally referred to as the Voice of the Customer. I’ll say it again, because apparently it needs repeating: you don’t use these techniques to get innovations. You use them to better understand your customer—their problems, on their terms. Then, armed with this understanding, you can work to create the innovations they may not even know they are seeking.
As for the claim that no truly innovative idea has ever come from a customer? Controversial statements such as these may create keynotes that help you promote your own brand of consulting services (that apparently are designed to ignore the Voice of the Customer?) but fail to capture the genuine capacity for innovation that exists in today’s markets. To learn more, read this: Customer Made.
