Case studies

Open ten returned units before you commission any customer research.

A chiller manufacturer had four-star reviews and an 11% return rate. The reviews described the product; the returns described one gasket.

Write down the failure that would end the company, then build the rig for that one first.

Six months of drop testing on a battery pack that had never failed by being dropped. It failed by being charged in a hot van, which nobody had a rig for.

Find the person who already visits your customer monthly and make them the channel.

A dairy chiller sold badly to farmers and well to the technicians who service them. The product did not change; the person being asked to say yes did.

Hold at one city until the same stores reorder three times without a promotion.

A packaged foods brand launched in six cities on the strength of one good month, and spent the next year discovering that only one of the six reordered.