The goal of every product development research effort is to satisfy stakeholders by meeting their needs and delivering a high-quality, memorable experience that will drive brand loyalty and future sales. Best practice dictates that you perform loads of research to identify and address all of your customer needs so your new product dominates the market.
But what happens when some of that research doesn’t line up? Do you add all of the features to satisfy everyone, even at the expense of usability or higher cost? Or does the project grind to a halt for fear of alienating a chunk of the market?
As painful as it seems, one of the most important skills to learn in product development is the ability to say “no.” The trick is to learn when to say it, and who to say it to.
