Jeff Bezos said if you ONLY look at data, you will not win big because the biggest breakthroughs are made with intuition:
« The only way I could advise any founder or entrepreneur is to deeply understand what are the big ideas that their customers want.
You should ask your customers.
But it’s not sufficient…you also have to invent on their behalf.
Because the biggest breakthroughs, the most important ideas, customers don’t know to ask…
You have to dream and you have to use your intuition and your gut and your heart.
All of the data that gets used in business is essential.
If you’re in business and you’re not looking at your data, trust me, your competitors are going to beat you.
But if you’re only looking at your data, you also will not win, or at least not win big.
Because the most important decisions that every person makes when they are building something new, is made with intuition.
You cannot prove it.
But you have an instinct and a hunch. »
>> This reminded me of another critical point Jeff makes regarding different types of data because sometimes even high-performing teams get caught up in just look at the hard metrics and spreadsheets:
When the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right. It’s usually not that the data is being miscollected. It’s usually that you’re not measuring the right thing. If you have a bunch of customers complaining about something, and at the same time your metrics look like they shouldn’t be complaining, you should doubt the metrics.
Transcript
Transcript
Transcript
Always go back to is those customer needs. So that’s the only way that I could advise any founder or entrepreneur is. To deeply understand what are the big ideas that their customers want and you can’t you’ve, you should ask them. Ask your customers, but it’s not sufficient. You also have to invent on their behalf because the biggest. Breakthroughs. The most important ideas customers don’t know to ask. They don’t know to ask for those things. That’s why dream that you have to dream and you have to use your intuition and your gut and your heart. All of the data that gets used in business is essential. If you’re in business and you’re not looking at your data, trust me, your competitors are going to beat you. But if you’re only looking at your data. You also will not win, or at least not win big, because the most important decisions that every person makes when they’re building something new. Is made with intuition. If you cannot prove it, but you have an instinct and a hunch, and then you’ll pay attention. If that turns out to be wrong, it won’t be a big deal, you’ll correct.