W. Edwards Deming Quotes

Salads was a big indicator of that - there was a huge market out there for it. And why not tap it? Some of the things we are doing now around the globe are responding to customers. It's not because some guy sued you.

Market leaders inevitably slip into decline when they tell the people what they want instead of giving the people what they want.

The simplest way to assure sales is to keep changing the product the market for new things is indefinitely elastic. One of the fundamental purposes of advertising, styling, and research is to foster a healthy dissatisfaction.

Research is an organized method of trying to find out what you are going to do after you cannot do what you are doing now. It may also be said to be the method of keeping a customer reasonably dissatisfied with what he has. That means constant improvement and change so that the customer will be stimulated to desire the new product enough to buy it to replace the one he has.

It isn't the consumers' job to know what they want.

You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.

There are two kinds of people... There are the dreamers who go and buy, and there are the doers who go and make. And I've always recognized that. So the dreamers are what support our company because they will buy the product that they could make if they wanted to, had time to, or were so inclined to.

There are two ways to extend a business. Take inventory of what you're good at and extend out from your skills. Or determine what your customers need and work backward, even if it requires learning new skills. Kindle is an example of working backward.

Innovation comes from the producer - not from the customer.

To ensure we are meeting the demands of existing customers while also attracting new users, we remain focused on building cutting-edge technology and introducing new and innovative product offerings.

People don’t know what they want until they see it.

Too many bar owners built a bar for themselves... when they should have built what their market and demographic demands!

Products are sold because they solve a problem or fill a need. Understanding problems and needs involves understanding customers and what makes them tick.

Certainly in business terms, considering how thriving the market is. Understanding what people want is essential. We have a team on the ground whose job it is to keep tabs on what's good, whether it's a tapas bar in Barcelona, or an amazing fish and chip shop in Yorkshire.

The product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.

You need to spend all of your time and energy on creating something that actually brings value to the people you're asking for money!

It's not the consumers' job to figure out what they want

To create something you want to sell, you first study and research the market, then you develop the product to the best of your ability.

It turns out that is exactly what product strategy is all about—figuring out the right product is the innovator’s job, not the customer’s job.

Listen to your customers, but don't always build exactly what they're telling you. This is a really key distinction around building enterprise software.

Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?

It had always made sense to me to build a business based on what people really wanted, rather than guess what we thought they might want.

I don't think anyone has done a [tablet] product that I see customers wanting.

Before you build a better mousetrap, it helps to know if there are any mice out there.

The idea that comics stores, distributors and publishers simply 'give the customers what they want' is nonsense. What the customers wanted they didn't get - and they left.