How foresight beat focus groups and why most brands get trapped in yesterday’s feedback.
Feedback Is a Mirror. Foresight Is a Map.
There’s a reason Apple didn’t ask customers if they wanted an iPhone. There’s also a reason IBM asked and built what users said they needed.
Guess who shaped the future?
This isn’t a hit piece on customer feedback. It’s a reframe. Feedback can refine. But it rarely reimagines. Let’s break down why disruptive innovation comes from insight, not instruction and how Apple mastered that balance while IBM played it safe.
The Feedback Fallacy: When Listening Makes You Blind
Conventional business wisdom says: “Listen to your customers.” But customers can only describe what they know; what exists, what frustrates, what they can imagine with the tools in front of them. They don’t always see what’s possible. And if you build only what they ask for, you’ll always be slightly behind.
That’s where IBM fell short.
IBM’s Missed Moment: Optimising the Known
In the early 2000s, IBM had enormous B2B power. Their systems ran governments, hospitals, and enterprises. They used classic customer feedback loops; extensive enterprise interviews, feature-driven roadmaps, and conservative upgrades to protect legacy systems.
But they focused too much on existing clients, not on emerging behaviours. The result? They built better versions of yesterday’s tools. Meanwhile, agile upstarts were rethinking what tools were for.
IBM didn’t innovate the user experience. It perfected the backend until competitors like Amazon Web Services redefined what cloud infrastructure could mean.
Apple’s Philosophy: Build for What They’ll Want Tomorrow
Steve Jobs said it plainly: “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
Apple’s innovation model relied less on focus groups and more on intuitive leaps guided by cultural insight, design obsession, technological bets, and an ecosystem vision. They didn’t ask, “What features do you want?” They asked, “How do people want to feel when they interact with tech?” Then they designed toward that.
That’s why the iPhone was a revolution, not an iteration.
Foresight Is a Creative Act
Foresight isn’t prediction. It’s a mix of pattern recognition, cultural fluency, and visionary decision-making. Apple’s biggest wins were all foresight moves. iTunes reshaped how we monetised music. The iPhone introduced mobile-first UX before users even expected it. AirPods offered seamless audio before Bluetooth became universal. And Vision Pro is laying the groundwork for a future few people fully grasp yet.
Each product ignored what customers were asking for at the time and instead, shaped what they’d crave next.
When Feedback Is Useful and When It’s a Trap
Feedback is essential when you need to refine the user experience, iterate after launch, reduce friction, or boost retention. But it becomes a trap when it drives product ideation, over-prioritises current users at the expense of future ones, or silences risk-taking in favour of consensus.
If you want to build the next big thing, you have to listen to signals, not surveys.
Knowing When to Use Foresight or Feedback
In the early stage when you’re still forming your vision, rely on foresight. Customers can’t describe what doesn’t exist yet, and asking them will only give you more of the same. During the MVP and testing stage, collect light feedback. Look for friction, not feature requests.
Once you start scaling, behavioural data becomes your goldmine. Watch what users do, not just what they say. As your brand expands into new audiences or markets, cultural insight becomes the new compass. That’s when you start scanning societal shifts, unmet values, and early adopter behaviour to define what comes next.
The key isn’t to choose between foresight and feedback. The key is knowing when to lead and when to listen, without letting listening dull your edge.
What Founders and Marketers Can Learn
If you’re building something new, ask yourself: Are you being guided by complaints or by possibility? Are you improving pain points or reimagining the experience? Are you building for who your audience is or who they’re becoming?
Foresight means making peace with risk. It means you’ll be misunderstood until you’re not. Apple got mocked for removing the headphone jack. Then the entire industry followed. IBM didn’t get mocked. But it also didn’t change the world.
Final Word: The Market Doesn’t Reward Obedience. It Rewards Vision.
The future isn’t built by brands that follow instructions. It’s built by brands that observe the world, read between the signals, and build boldly anyway.
Apple proves that you can win by refusing to ask the obvious questions. IBM proves that even giants fall if they only listen to what’s already been said.
If your goal is to lead, not follow, don’t just ask your audience what they want.
Anticipate what they’ll love next.
Certified And Creative 
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