Cool product idea? Depends what your customers think

I'll admit that I began my PR career at SRI-International back when it was called Stanford Research Institute -- and was always described with the word "prestigious" in front of it. I was reminded of this when I read of the new book by its current CEO, Curtis R. Carlson, Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want . By "reminded", I mean that you really don't hear very much about SRI-International today, despite the many products that owe their existence to it and the researchers who toil there in relative obscurity. The computer mouse, the graphical user interface and even food flavorings are but a few among dozens of devices and concepts that began life at SRI.I've not read the book, the gist of which is that you should always look to prospective customers and partners for guidance when it comes to new product ideas. Really? Anyone needing a book to get such a revelation is probably not going to last very long in any competitive business, let alone create "what customers want". Steve Turner and I are continually amazed by seemingly intelligent people who insist that their idea, their new thing, their pet project -- no matter how ill-conceived and half-baked -- is bound to take the world by storm. That buyers will blow down the doors to get at it. And that all they need to make it happen is really great marketing. On the cheap, of course. In fact, "really great marketing" is what they need in the first place to come up with a really great product. Or, to reveal to them that the product they're trying to sell actually sucks.On second thought, if reading this book encourages even one of these people to start believing that the most successful products are always conceived with real people and real needs in mind, and a lot of marketing sweat in advance, it will have served an invaluable purpose.