If you know me and know how much I love shoes, you would know that I am the kind of person who would buy 12 pairs of shoes in one day. Yes, I said it—12 pairs in one day.
This means there is a high chance I own a pair of TOM’s shoes, which I do, by the way. I love the shoes because it’s beautiful and comfortable. A great combination, right?
But my love for it grew when I learned about its purpose and values.
What are TOM’s purpose and values?
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The worst advice I have received: “Stop writing.”
I got that advice from a best-selling author who wrote multiple books and a very successful blogger. I looked up to her and thought, “Only if I could have my blog be as impactful as hers one day,” followed by a sigh and then by following her advice.
Her intent was genuine, she shared what worked for her, and perhaps even if I followed her exact footsteps, I would have had the same results. She meant well—that I know. The idea was not to stop writing because writing is bad, but she wanted me to take a step back, do the customer research that I can’t emphasize how much is important, set a strategy, and then, only then, I would start writing. I fully agree with her, and that’s the kind of advice I would give as well.
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We were designing a product for a particular customer segment when one of the technical “experts” decided to take one design direction because he knew better.
He said, “I have been doing this for many years, and I “know” what customers want.”
Forget the fact that he wasn’t a designer; he still thought he “knew better.”
Why?
Design is such a subjective topic. Everyone has a point of view. It’s not like you are engineering the system of an autonomous car, right? THAT for sure needs expertise. But design? Everyone can do design. Or so they think.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry ford
Sometimes, when we think about innovation, creating new products or services, we think about what is familiar to us.
You might think I wish to create something that I want or something that I am passionate about. While your passion is crucial to keep your engine going, it might not necessarily be what your customers want.
There are two primary schools of thoughts when creating new products:
1] Ideation: Ideate, brainstorm, test as many ideas as you can, and fail fast.
2] Needs and challenges: Find out about your customers’ needs and then serve them.
If you had watched “Fight Club”, you might be familiar with this phrase.
“The things you own end up owning you.”
We develop relationships with our things. We do.
And that’s because the things we own, help us, achieve one of two things, if not both.
Things help us physically or they help our mental well-being.
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Market research is one of the most important steps before you do a lot of work for your business.
“Know your customer.”
It’s one of the most fundamental requirements and yet many still miss out on.
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If the desire is what makes customers buy, then what is desire?
The million-dollar question, “How can I tap into the desire of my customers?”
But before we talk about “how”, let’s first explore “what” is desire.
If I want to simply summarize desire, I would in two categories:
1. Desires that are based on biological triggers
2. Desires that are influenced by mass advertisements
Making money is not that straight forward, or else, the phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees” wouldn’t exist.
There is only one way to make money - that is by selling a product or service to customers who would value it and pay the price you have asked for.
Customers are human, and the most fundamental part of us as a human is that we buy for a reason.
We buy to satisfy our hopes, dreams, fears, and emotions.
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Do you remember the last time you were told to memorize something?
I can’t. Can you?
Memorizing is a thing of the past, and hence why we can sometimes even don’t memorize our way home from work. We rely on Google Maps. Some of us do, not all.
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Hell yes!
Even when you don’t know it.
What is social validation?
“When we are uncertain about what to do we will look to other people to guide us. And we do this automatically and unconsciously.” -Robert Chialdini
Have you ever caught yourself in Amazon’s “Customers who read this also read…” section and thinking, “huh, let me check this out”?
That is social validation.
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