Research isn't there to tell you that you were right

One of my least favourite research briefs is essentially: “Here is the thing we want to do. Can you prove customers want it?”

Obviously nobody writes it quite like that.

But you can feel it.

The idea has momentum. People are excited. Someone senior loves it. The deck is half built. Research has been invited in towards the end to validate the decision.

And I think that misses the most valuable bit of research.

I want research to have the possibility of ruining my favourite idea.

Otherwise what are we doing?

If I’ve already decided the answer and I’m only interested in evidence that supports it, I don’t really want customer understanding. I want customer endorsement.

Those are different things.

This doesn’t mean handing all decision-making power to six people in a focus group. Customers can misunderstand concepts. People can say they’ll buy something and never touch it. Research needs interpretation.

But there should be a genuine possibility that you learn something you didn’t want to learn.

Maybe the problem you’re solving isn’t particularly important. Maybe people like the idea but wouldn’t pay for it. Maybe they’ve interpreted the proposition completely differently. Maybe the audience you assumed would love it is indifferent and someone you hadn’t considered is desperate for it.

That’s useful.

It might be inconvenient. It might create more work. It might mean changing the plan.

But surely that is better than finding out after you've made 100,000 of them.