Data + Intuition = Awesomeness

I used to read BusinessWeek religiously. And there are some great people there. But now it’s for sale and Bruce Nussbaum blames culture. He says that they lost touch with their readers. Oh, sure they tried to understand what their readers wanted… with surveys. Don’t get me wrong. Surveys have a place in market research– they’re great for confirming hypotheses. But they only give you answers to the questions you think to ask. And that is not how to be awesome.

All of this reminds me of a question I asked last year: at what point does a company shift from its original entrepreneurial culture to corporate incrementalism?

I think it happens when the company falls out of love with its customers.

Starting a business is hard. Really hard. And most new businesses fail. So, you’d better be really friggin passionate about that need you’re trying to fill in the marketplace, and you’d better understand the hell out of your customers. It’s a romantic comedy of sorts. The first few years are great! Passionate! You understand each other. Then, gradually (naturally) the passion fades. So does the understanding. And when you lose that empathy, that deep understanding, you lose your intuition. Intuition is what helped get your business started. But what got you started won’t keep you going. It won’t take you to the next level of awesome.

How can you avoid taking home the blue ribbon for being mediocre?

1. Understand the hell out of your customer. Talk to them (yikes!) in real life. Pick up the damn phone and call someone. Go where they are. But don’t be a stalker.
2. Take a stand. Be passionate about something. Nobody ever made progress by being well behaved.
3. Be balanced. You need data to inform your intuition. Neither is a valid substitute for the other. You need both. You need data and intuition.

So. Time for a new question: is it possible for Public companies to be truly passionate about their customers? I’m not sure. Ultimately, they serve Wall Street’s relentless, short-sighted demand for growth and profit. Public companies trade integrity for capital. What do you think? Fire away in the comments.

This post, over at The Planning Lab, reminded me of a sketch I did last year.