4 ms·

And yet the (probably apocryphal) Henry Ford quote "If I had asked what my customers what they wanted they would have said faster horses" stands in counterpoint

by JackFr 6y ago

And yet the (probably apocryphal) Henry Ford quote "If I had asked what my customers what they wanted they would have said faster horses" stands in counterpoint. Talk to your customers, but leave room for your vision. If the customers knew the answer it wouldn't be a problem.

artembugara 6y ago
Actually, I think it does not contradict. Problem --> we want to get faster from point A to point B So yeah, if you ask them the solution (not the problem) then you might get such response. That is why YC teaches you to listen to the problem then come up with you solutions. I would like to have a faster airplane, but probably there is a guy with a teleport somewhere.
- shawnMer 6y ago
  You got there before me, well said
shawnMer 6y ago
I've always wondered how to think about this dichotomy - there are other examples besides Ford, Apple sometimes, etc. The way I've thought about it is the classic "ask what your customers want" relies on you to bring customer context and understanding to make another jump to what the underlying problem is. "faster horse" -> "get from point A to point B faster"
WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
I think the issue there is that the users did want faster horses... the same way that asking someone what they wanted would have lead to "a bigger blackberry" instead of "an iPhone"
ska 6y ago
I think that (probably apocryphal) Ford quote is a bit of a red herring. Sure if you ask your customer for solutions, you'll get "faster horses". But or course that that would be silly - you aren't talking to them for solutions. You are talking to (hopefully lots of) potential customers is to understand their problems really well. The road to startup success is littered with the bodies of companies that had a neat solution to problems nobody really cared about. Sometimes really neat technology. Still dead. If your business approach is a solution looking for the right problem, success is going to depend a lot on timing and luck; i.e. things you cannot control.
dang 6y ago
That one's a Quote Investigator classic: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/07/28/ford-faster-horse/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/07/28/ford-faster-horse/ Turns out a cruise ship designer came up with it in 1999.

by JackFr 6y ago

artembugara 6y ago

Actually, I think it does not contradict. Problem --> we want to get faster from point A to point B So yeah, if you ask them the solution (not the problem) then you might get such response. That is why YC teaches you to listen to the problem then come up with you solutions. I would like to have a faster airplane, but probably there is a guy with a teleport somewhere.

shawnMer 6y ago
You got there before me, well said

shawnMer 6y ago

I've always wondered how to think about this dichotomy - there are other examples besides Ford, Apple sometimes, etc. The way I've thought about it is the classic "ask what your customers want" relies on you to bring customer context and understanding to make another jump to what the underlying problem is. "faster horse" -> "get from point A to point B faster"

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago

I think the issue there is that the users did want faster horses... the same way that asking someone what they wanted would have lead to "a bigger blackberry" instead of "an iPhone"

ska 6y ago

I think that (probably apocryphal) Ford quote is a bit of a red herring. Sure if you ask your customer for solutions, you'll get "faster horses". But or course that that would be silly - you aren't talking to them for solutions. You are talking to (hopefully lots of) potential customers is to understand their problems really well. The road to startup success is littered with the bodies of companies that had a neat solution to problems nobody really cared about. Sometimes really neat technology. Still dead. If your business approach is a solution looking for the right problem, success is going to depend a lot on timing and luck; i.e. things you cannot control.

dang 6y ago

That one's a Quote Investigator classic: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/07/28/ford-faster-horse/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/07/28/ford-faster-horse/ Turns out a cruise ship designer came up with it in 1999.