Customer Feedback Loops
They asked a real question. It was the wrong question.
The business case
The Taste Test That Was Right and the Decision That Was Wrong — The Coca-Cola Company · United States · 1985. Facing sustained competitive pressure, Coca-Cola tested a reformulated drink with roughly two hundred thousand consumers. In blind taste tests, a clear majority preferred the new formula to both the original and to Pepsi.
Why it matters
They asked a real question. It was the wrong question. Feedback is not automatically useful. It is only useful if the question you asked corresponds to the decision you are about to make. A blind sip in a laboratory is a different act from choosing a drink you have known since childhood. The research measured the first and was used to decide the second. Before collecting any feedback, write the decision it will inform. If the two do not match, the data will mislead you confidently.
What you will be able to do afterwards
- How to run a structured feedback session
- How not to lead the witness
- Pivot signals, noise, and reaching Product-Prototype Fit
27 screens, audio-narrated, with a quiz at the end.