Asking what job was the product hired to do is similar to my favorite question: What pain are they trying to remove with the product?
Talking to customers is still important to understand the motives for their actions and the problems they have. Sometimes they even don't tell you directly that they have a problem. The action is actually normal for them and only an outsider who tries to understand what they do sees this problem.
An example of this are AirPods. Everyone was used to headphones with cable. Non one identified the cable as a problem. That's why at first AirPods felt strange when you saw them. But as soon as you had your own wireless headphones you immediately noticed the problem you had with the cable.
The pain of always untwisting the cable and making sure it ran nice under your jacket was real.
> An example of this are AirPods. Everyone was used to headphones with cable. Non one identified the cable as a problem. That's why at first AirPods felt strange when you saw them. But as soon as you had your own wireless headphones you immediately noticed the problem you had with the cable.
Surely you're not implying that Apple invented this? Wireless headphones and Bluetooth earpieces existed and saw widespread use long before AirPods were relevant.
What Apple did was miniaturize the guts into a stylish form factor. Their branding and market share did the rest.
> Wireless headphones and Bluetooth earpieces existed
Afaik you had either full headphones with a headband, in-ears with the battery hanging off a cable between them and the one-ear standalone things that were good only for calls.
Also the little charging box that you could keep in your pocket was nowhere to be seen.
So yes, airpods were a lot more convenient when launched. Has little to do with branding. Everyone is cloning it now :)
Talking to customers is still important to understand the motives for their actions and the problems they have. Sometimes they even don't tell you directly that they have a problem. The action is actually normal for them and only an outsider who tries to understand what they do sees this problem.
An example of this are AirPods. Everyone was used to headphones with cable. Non one identified the cable as a problem. That's why at first AirPods felt strange when you saw them. But as soon as you had your own wireless headphones you immediately noticed the problem you had with the cable.
The pain of always untwisting the cable and making sure it ran nice under your jacket was real.