It hit me today. Ford and Jobs were right.

Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”

Steve Jobs: “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them”

I had heard some these quotes a lot of times before. They gave me the impression that the guys are suggesting not to base business decisions on a customer’s opinion. Kind of “you should understand the user’s needs yourself”. It confused me a bit, to be honest. I didn’t understand why they said so. But they’re great brains, right?

So I knew I was missing something.

Several years ago I read the book “The Mom Test” where Rob Fitzpatrick writes how to ask customers the right questions.
I knew most of it already, but the examples collected and organised are great. Totally recommend.

It hit me today — they’re talking about the same thing:
Don’t ask customers about their needs or about your product!
But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask them anything.
We just need to choose the right ways of getting information.

Obvious, huh?