Design and customer insight are not mutually incompatible

British industrial designer Sir James Dyson, inventor of the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, was recently quoted as saying: “Steve Jobs has shown you ignore good design at your peril and that breakthrough products come from taking intuitive risks, not from listening to focus groups.”

At first glance this may sound like an obvious statement: that good design emerges from the maverick, creative mind and that research in the marketplace serves only to stifle that creativity and genius. However, on second reading, it also looks not only a little elitist, but also that the designer or the brand (and in Dyson’s case the two are, of course, inextricably linked) either doesn’t trust or isn’t interested in the judgment of its potential customers.

It will come as no surprise that I don’t agree with this. Ultimately research tells you what you set it up to do. You have to ask a question and create sound and effective research to deliver the answer. Framing research properly is key to getting the right result.

But, of course, focus groups are not the only available research tool. An experienced researcher will be able to point clients in the right direction. Effective research can either improve or kill off an idea, perhaps saving the brand thousands in development costs. Research will highlight broader market issues that maybe can or can’t be addressed but which, either way, would be crucial to success in market.

A colleague of mine recently worked on a product where a sample of 800 respondents said they liked the idea but wouldn’t buy it due to perceived credibility and price issues. The research was showing it to be a high risk launch, but the manufacturer disagreed, pointing to one guy in one focus group who said he would buy the product.

As well as classic research tools that “test” ideas, we also use techniques and approaches which engage with consumers in the nurturing, development and co-creation of ideas. Consumers, treated with respect and given the appropriate tools, can be just as intuitive as contemporary boffins like James Dyson.

Focus groups may not be the best tool for the job when it comes to new product development, but to go to the opposite extreme and ditch the many sophisticated and subtle customer insight approaches now available to brands is to wander into a marketplace blind. And who has the available cash to do that in the current economic climate?