The incidence of high blood pressure has increased across this generation. The use of portable electronic devices has also increased across this generation. Therefore portable electronic devices must cause high blood pressure.
Hmmmmm, hardly. But this is the concept of Fuzzy Logic.
Obscure correlations occur everywhere, and usually, the more obscure the correlation is the greater the chance that it is incorrect.
The same applies to business operations. Inexperienced operators, especially inexperienced emotionally connected operators cannot see that what may be important to them is not necessarily important to their customers.
Whenever making operational decisions they should always be looked at from the customers point of view first. What might seem like an absolute no-brainer to the business might have little, none, or a negative impact to the consumer.
Recently Glad moved their cling wrap serrated edge from the bottom of the box to the top. This position provided mechanically better management of the lose cling film edge . Problem was that the consumer focus group was incorrectly populated. Although it received a thimbs up from the focus group, it was not a passionate response.
The resultant release of the re-located serrated edge caused such a consumer revolt that product sales plummeted and the company was forced to reposition the edge back to the original spot.
If you are too close to the product to make an unbiased decision then you need to seek advice from external reviewers. The biggest risk is ensuring that your external reviewers are a fair representation of your current customer group. Otherwise you may need to back step just like Glad.
