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Having worked for a large corporate I frequently saw decisions that did not always make sense, with the justification being that the company was an innovator and market leader, and that they wanted to be like Apple and tell the customers what they wanted. Market research and such were not considered useful.

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I am not sure whether to laugh or cry at that. "We want to tell customers what they want. And it turns out what they want is this half-assed thing that will advance the career of the executive pushing for it."

I have my issues with Apple. But they have such a deep tradition of user research and customer focus. When they tell customers what they want, it's often because they have really good data indicating it's what customers do want but don't totally know it yet.

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