http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9nbTB33hbg What sort of market research do you do before launching or relaunching a product?

Some of us don't do any research at all–subscribing to the "If we build it, they will come" philosophy. While others do all sorts of market research. The bummer is that doing traditional market research tends not to improve our odds of launch success. Ouch!

Clay Christensen has an interesting theory about why traditional market research isn't much better than "if we build it, they will come." Something he learned from a milk shake. More importantly, he has a great suggestion for how we can improve the situation.

It comes down to a very simple question, "What job are you hiring your product to do?"

Watch and let me know if you agree... and enjoy your milkshake!