Does Listening to Customers Hurt Product Innovation?

Abstract

It is frequently asserted that listening to customers is not a good idea if a firm’s goal is to develop breakthrough new products. 1 Rather, managers are advised to rely on their own internal creativity in order to come up with really new products. I submit this is an extreme stance that oversimplifies the situation. I argue that listening to customers can help or hurt innovativeness of new products depending on which customers a firm listens to, what questions it asks, who in the firm listens to customers, and how they listen to customers. Done right, listening to customers can not only lead to breakthrough product innovation, but also subsequent success of the innovation in the marketplace.