Founders shocked by what their customers actually see #productdesign #reality #feedback

20 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, the presenter explains a user‑research technique called “simulated shopping,” where founders present their product concept to strangers and record their reactions. The exercise consistently uncovers a stark mismatch between what founders believe their idea conveys and what real users actually perceive. By showing interview clips back to the founders, the session highlights surprising misunderstandings, prompting founders to reconsider their assumptions and adjust product design or messaging accordingly.

Chapters

Folks will come in with what they think is a very clear idea about what they want and what they need and their audience for that. And then we'll run this exercise called simulated shopping. And it's a research exercise where we actually take their idea and we start showing it to strangers. And what we experience during that is very interesting because there's always these moments where people are, are telling me vastly different things than what the founder or the executive came in and told us. And we show these clips of the interviews to clients and they're like, what do you mean they didn't get my idea?