Why Customer Research Falls Short in Emerging Technology

What happens when the thing you’re designing is so new that customers don’t even know what to ask for?

How do you ask customers about a future they can’t imagine?

There’s no question that in well-established markets and products, customer research is a powerful tool and it definitely helps refine existing products, prioritize fixes, and identify opportunities for incremental innovation. But when it comes to designing entirely new products or features, especially in areas fast-evolving as AI, traditional customer research can lead us off a cliff.

The reason is simple: customers excel at articulating their current needs and frustrations, but they struggle to imagine solutions to problems they don’t fully understand yet. I have seen this first hand and the gap becomes even more pronounced when the technology is so new that its potential impact and the problems it can solve are not yet clear.

The Problem with “Customer-Led” Innovation in Emerging Areas

Lets look at AI tools, its moving fast, but still in its early stages, both the market and the technology are just starting to be understood. Asking customers for input in scenarios regarding AI innovation can feel like asking someone to design a car before they’ve ever seen a wheel. The feedback you get tends to lead to a safe, incremental solution that doesn’t fully leverage the transformative potential of the emerging technology.

Moreover, customers are often biased by their current experiences. They may focus on patching immediate pain points rather than exploring what’s possible.

This creates a paradox: the feedback is real and valuable, but it’s not a reliable guide to solving the larger, more systemic problems that these technologies can address.

Asking customers for input in these scenarios can feel like asking someone to design a car before they’ve ever seen a wheel. We should stay away from asking customers what they need or want.

A Better Approach: Problem Space Exploration

In emerging technology, we need a different kind of research, one that emphasizes exploration over prescription. So rather than asking customers what they need or want, we should start by understanding the problem space before they do:

Identify Unmet Needs: Look for gaps that customers might not articulate but that are evident through observation, data analysis, or industry trends.

Focus on Jobs to Be Done: Understand the broader objectives that customers are trying to achieve, even if they can’t envision how technology could help them get there.

Map the Ecosystem: Study how workflows, tools, and systems interact to uncover opportunities for disruption or augmentation.

Hypothesis-Driven Innovation

Once the problem space is well understood, the next step is to formulate hypotheses. Take some educated guesses about how the technology can address the needs and challenges uncovered in the research.

Articulate a Clear Hypothesis: Define the problem you’re solving, the target audience, and the unique value your product will bring.

Prototype Early: Build prototypes, not to perfect the solution, but to test assumptions and gather feedback.

Test and Iterate: Use insights from user testing to refine your understanding of the problem and validate or pivot your hypothesis.

This approach shifts the focus from asking customers for solutions to engaging them as co-creators in the exploration process. It acknowledges that while customers may not know what they want, they can help you discover what works once you’ve presented them with possibilities.

Embracing Uncertainty

Designing in the context of emerging technology requires comfort with ambiguity. It’s about exploring the unknown, not following a predetermined path. While this can be challenging, it’s also where the most exciting innovations happen.

As design leaders, we must advocate for a process that embraces exploration, experimentation, and iteration. This means shifting from a customer-led approach to one that is grounded in curiosity and creativity.

So when it comes to customer research, instead of seeking validation, we should focus on discovery. Instead of asking customers to define the solution, we should collaborate with them to uncover the problem.

The path to innovation does not start with interview answers but with questions. By prioritizing problem space exploration and hypothesis-driven design, we can navigate the uncertainty of new markets and create products that solve meaningful problems, ones that customers may not even know they have yet.