The failed pet projects of

powerful public figures

What we can learn from Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and

Barack Obama's painful public failures

CukeUp 2015Megan Folsom

@mfolsom

An armchair

retrospective

• Wrong person identified as customer

• Incorrectly identified primary need of the customer

• Built the wrong solution for achieving the real needs

of customers

Common themes of failed products

As a monster(hint: this is the customer)

I want a compartment in the floor under the bed(hint: this is the solution)

So I can hide there and easily scare people(hint: this is the primary need)

In the third quarter of 2014 Amazon

took a write-down of $170 million

dollars on the failed fire phone

sales after slashing the price from

$200 to 99 cents

Did you identify?

As Jeff Bezos

I want my customers to see a product in the physical

world and use cool technology to recognize it and

instantly buy it on Amazon.com

so I can make more money

• Wrong Customer: Jeff Bezos

• Primary need of the company confused with

primary need of the customer: Make money

• Solution was totally disconnected from

consumers real wants and needs: Scan a

physical product and then interact with it virtually ??

As Jeff Bezos

I want my customers to see a product in the physical

world and use cool technology to recognize it and

instantly buy it on Amazon.com

so I can make more money

As a frequent online shopper

I want my phone to quickly and easily manage

all of my online shopping needs

so I can quickly and easily buy what I want and

need

• Customer: Frequent online shopper

• Customer’s primary need: quickly and easily buy things

• Solution: a phone with features that manage all of their online

shopping (tracks what I buy and notifies me when I a run out of

things I buy often, compares prices instantly, etc.)

As a frequent online shopper

I want my phone to quickly and easily manage

all of my online shopping needs

so I can quickly and easily buy what I want

and need

Google Glass

Google Glass was released as a

prototype and is speculated to have

sold only in the thousands. Google

stopped sales in January 2015 after

a lackluster reception from

consumers.

As Sergey Brin

I want a communication device that will free up my

hands, eyes and ears

so that I can connect with the world around me

• Perhaps not the customer: Sergey Brin

• Very general primary need: Connect to the world around

them

• Interesting solution: A communication device that lets

you receive information but frees up hands, eyes and ears

As Sergey Brin

I want a communication device that will free up my

hands, eyes and ears

so that I can connect with the world around me

As the team working on google glass

we want to record images and videos of anything

anytime without the use of our hands, eyes or ears

so that ??

• Wrong Customer: Team working on Glass

• No Primary Need Identified: ??

• Dubious Solution: Record anything anytime

hands,eyes and ears-free

As the team working on google glass

we want to record images and videos of anything

anytime without the use of our hands, eyes or ears

so that ??

As a doctor

I want to have my hands eyes and ears free

while I receive information about my patient

so I can perform surgery with all of the

necessary information to save my patient’s life

• Customer: Doctor

• Primary Need: perform surgery and save lives

• Solution: Receive information about my patient’s

vitals on a device while keeping my hands, eyes and

ears free

As a doctor

I want to have my hands eyes and ears free

while I receive information about my patient

so I can perform surgery with all of the

necessary information to save my patient’s

life

Obama Care

As the president of the United States

I want as many people as possible to signup by a

certain deadline for obamacare

so that the republicans can’t kill it

• Wrong Customer: President of the United States

• Primary Need of the President Not the real

customer: Beat the Republicans

• Solution geared towards President’s needs: Get

as many people to sign up as possible

As the president of the United States

I want as many people as possible to signup by

a certain deadline for obamacare

so that the republicans can’t kill it

As an American with a pre-existing condition

I want access to affordable healthcare

so I can get my cancer treatment paid next week

• Customer: American in need of healthcare

• Primary Need: Get Healthcare paid for (promptly if

necessary)

• Solution: Quick painless access to healthcare

system

As an American with a pre-existing condition

I want access to affordable healthcare

so I can get my cancer treatment paid next

week

Some final advice to my friends

Jeff, Sergey and Obama for the future

• You likely don’t represent the customer

• Identify a primary need of the customer that is both

relevant and natural to them

• The solution you build should always meet the

customer’s primary need

Some final advice to my friends

Jeff, Sergey and Obama for the future

Thank You

Megan Folsom

@mfolsomCukeUp 2015