There was a VP
at a large beverage company
I worked at
who would push back
every time someone used
a personal anecdote
to try to sway a decision.
“When I’m in a grocery store,
my eye is drawn
to the orange juice bottles
with blue caps.”
“I find the product
too sweet.”
“I don’t like pop up ads
on a landing page.”
He would always ask,
“Are you the target customer?”
Often,
the person speaking
wasn’t the target customer.
Does this mean
we should ignore
our own dislikes
and only do what the target customer
wants?
No.
If we launch a product
we don’t like,
we are unlikely
to spend every extra moment
of our lives
promoting it, talking about it,
working on it.
These extra moments
often separate success from failure.
Ideally,
we compromise.
We find products
both we and the target customer
like.
We make decisions
that make both groups happy
or, at the very least,
not one group sad.
You are NOT your customer
but your thoughts are important also.