Yes, customers did tell Henry Ford they wanted a car.
Yes, customers did tell Steve Jobs they wanted an iPhone.
Customers really do tell you what they want, but not in words, it is in understanding their needs.
Oren Jay Sofer spent a third of his book, Say What You Mean, on the importance of understanding underlying needs for better communication. He said,
- “Being skilled at identifying needs and relating to them wisely brings more insight… Needs are what matter beneath strategies. They are fundamental values that drive our actions.”
Being skilled at identifying needs and understanding them is the most challenging part because we are working with the needs of very complex human beings.
It’s difficult enough to understand our own needs, let alone others.
Steve Jobs and Henry Ford didn’t directly ask, “What do you want?” They also didn’t run an A/B test, or have an analyst run a report, or have a brainstorming meeting.
They both had a deep understanding of their customer’s needs, in the context of their solutions. They spent many years accumulating knowledge about their customers, their market, and the prevailing technology of their time.
They failed. They observed. They experimented. They failed again. It took a long time.
The iPhone came out in 2007. Apple started in 1976. The name “iPhone” was reserved in 1999 when the company registered the iphone.org domain. And, the original iPhone started in 2003 as a tablet when they were working on new types of inputs for the Mac.
The Model T came out in 1908. In 1882, Ford began working on steam engines. And, the original Model T started as a Quadricycle.
So, yes, customers did tell Jobs and Ford what they wanted. It just wasn’t with words, it was with needs.
Become skilled at identifying needs and you may stumble upon your Quadricycle.
