Peek like a Geek, steal like the greatest

How to use metaphors to gain an understanding of your customers’ mental model?

Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash

Schumpeter knew it already decades ago: “innovation is an invention put to work”. The underlying idea of his statement is as apparent as it can be. However, it is often hard for companies to come to this conclusion. The reason is an unequal focus on research and development compared to the emphasis on design. Usually, we allocate all attention to core-competences and technology. However, when innovation is an invention put to work, the magic happens where the customer interacts with the offering.

Innovation is invention put to work

To make the invention work and thus truly innovate, we must understand our customers’ mental model. We have to understand what they expect from our service, how they will want to use it, and the context in which they use it.

In our businesses, we are used to filling out a business model canvas. Such a canvas helps us to get a clear view of who our customers will be, what value we create for them, what activities we will deploy to create that value or offer, and who the partners will be that help us doing so. What the cost will be to make that value and how we will be profitable. When we are good at it and have done our research in the best of manners, we can define our value proposition. We understand the possible relationships we have with our different groups of customers and have a good view of our disposal channels to interact with these customers.

We usually have an excellent idea of the key activities we have to execute and the critical resources we need. The key partners that provide us with the necessary resources are also somewhat easy to map.

So we have our business model in place and have some ideas about the needs of our customers. We seldom have the slightest clue of the mental model (a concept first mentioned in Kenneth Craiks 1943 book ‘The Nature of Explanation’) of our customers. The reason for that is that our customers’ mental model is beyond our control and often beyond our understanding.