‘I just wanted a cup of coffee…’
Why are new product
failure rates so high? Could it be that our design process ignores a critical
voice?
Innovation thrives
when three personality types - the Hipster, Hustler and Hacker - are present
& in full flow. If one or more are absent, our innovations are likely to be
flat, or even worse, over-complicated & irritating.
Each of these characters
correspond to a fundamental question or test each innovation must pass. If
our idea fails to pass the test – Stop!
And decide, do we persevere, pivot, or kill the idea? Here are the three
questions & corresponding personality:
1. Does it wow? Hipster
2. Can we make money? Hustler
3. Does it work? Hacker
The sequence of
questions reflects hard-won wisdom: If it doesn’t wow, why build the
damn thing?
The Hipster understands customers –
their nature, history, needs, aches & pains, and jobs to be done. The best
Hipsters can intuit the entire customer journey from ‘I think I need
something…’ to ‘Wow, I really loved that experience. I’m going to tell
all my friends about it’. We ignore
the Hipster at our peril…
Our family was gifted
a new coffee maker recently, a top tier model with ‘smart connectivity’ and ‘advanced
convenience improvements’ including:
- Remote brewing: Start your coffee from bed or
another room, or schedule it to be ready when you wake up or return home
- Automated routines: Set daily or weekly schedules,
so your coffee is always ready at your preferred time
- Voice control: Use simple voice commands to
brew coffee or adjust settings, hands-free
- Maintenance alerts: Receive notifications for
cleaning, descaling, or other maintenance needs, reducing the guesswork in
machine upkeep
‘Customization enhancements’ included:
- Personalized profiles: Save individual preferences
for temperature, strength, grind size, and cup size, ensuring each user
gets their ideal cup every time
- Detailed adjustments: Use the app to fine-tune
brewing parameters such as water temperature, brew strength, and even espresso
pressure
- Recipe libraries: Access digital libraries of
international coffee recipes and specialty drinks, with step-by-step
guidance and the ability to send custom recipes directly to the machine
- Multi-order
management: Use apps to create a “coffee playlist” for guests
The device’s stated
goal was to ‘transform the coffee-making experience by automating routines,
enabling remote and voice control, and offering deep personalization
options—making it easier than ever to enjoy a perfect, customized cup of coffee
with minimal effort’.
How does that compare
with the customer’s needs? Here’s my
wife, Pamela, ‘I just want to press a button & get a good cup of
coffee.’ You can see where this is
going, no? In fact, the damned thing did everything, except what we
wanted. It proved impossible to press a
button & get a good cup of coffee. The instructions were opaque, the Blue
Tooth & other electronics didn’t work, and when we finally squeezed a
coffee out of it, it tasted awful.
The climax to our
comic opera came when Pam dropped the coffee maker into the garbage bin, muttering
‘I hate this machine!’ Pam left a review on line and found other reviews
that were just as scathing. “I hate this
machine…” was a common refrain.
I don’t want to be
misunderstood. I imagine the Design team
was smart, capable and committed. But not only did they fail to create Value,
but they also destroyed Value. My guess is that Hackers dominated the
design process, ignoring, or even excluding Hipsters. The Hackers convinced the Hustlers to go with
the new-fangled design, likely using buzzwords & invoking AI voodoo. And
they engaged electronics suppliers without confirming customer need or supplier
capability.
Post script: We just
bought a new coffee maker. It’s a
classic Italian model with simple & robust design, a half-page instruction
manual, and no electronics. The coffee
tastes great.
Best wishes
Pascal Dennis E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org
PS For more on Hipsters and
3H teams, check out our book.
#InnovationFails
#DesignThinking #ProductDesign #CustomerExperience #TechGoneWrong #KeepItSimple
