“We already knew that”: The ultimate put-down in VoC

Many product development managers run into the following problem: After extensive research is done on a new product development challenge or opportunity, the researchers come up with information the product manager feels he or she already knew. Does this response lessen the value of the research? Should the manager have saved money by just guessing that his or her gut instincts were right? Our contributing senior editor Gerry Katz takes on these questions.