Never trust Focus Groups... a very common fall-back. Rule #1 of new product research, don't expect to walk in a room of 8 random people and expect them to tell you what to do. They can only respond to what you show them, and only in the context of what you showed them prior. Did they show consumers a small device? How many groups did they conduct, and who with?
The vast majority of focus groups are a waste of money, and a crutch for insecure designers, product development, advertisers, and marketers so they have something to blame later for their failure.
Use the qualitative to build depth, gain insight, and tasty verbatims to include in internal communications. But not to decide how big a portable gaming device should be. If I were the researcher in the room I'd immediately start to wonder about gamers asking for a "big" portable gaming machine.... at odds with 50 years of tech miniaturization trends. LOL. So the failure of the Lynx is blamed on Market Research. Give me a break.
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Never trust Focus Groups... a very common fall-back. Rule #1 of new product research, don't expect to walk in a room of 8 random people and expect them to tell you what to do. They can only respond to what you show them, and only in the context of what you showed them prior. Did they show consumers a small device? How many groups did they conduct, and who with? The vast majority of focus groups are a waste of money, and a crutch for insecure designers, product development, advertisers, and marketers so they have something to blame later for their failure. Use the qualitative to build depth, gain insight, and tasty verbatims to include in internal communications. But not to decide how big a portable gaming device should be. If I were the researcher in the room I'd immediately start to wonder about gamers asking for a "big" portable gaming machine.... at odds with 50 years of tech miniaturization trends. LOL. So the failure of the Lynx is blamed on Market Research. Give me a break.