When "Brilliant" Ideas Bomb: Critical Lessons for Escaping Your Own Bias

What We Learned When No One Wanted What We Loved (and how that saved us money!)

A/B testing online for customer preferences was a tried and true strategy for Joe as he built websites and digital marketing campaigns in the automotive space, but how could he apply those lessons for CPG retail in the "real world?" He shares a wake-up moment as a founder about confidence, bias, and the importance of testing ideas before scaling. From launching a canned water experiment that looked clever on paper—but creeped people out in real life—to uncovering what customers actually want, this conversation is packed with lessons for entrepreneurs who think their “gut” is enough.

5 Key Takeaways:

• Your confidence doesn’t equal customer preference: Watch, listen and learn from your customers especially in early stages of product development.

• How to test in the real world to prevent expensive mistakes: simple DIY experiments can yield valuable insights.

• If you're inside the bottle, you can't read the label: Good branding is important but being overly clever can backfire when customers don’t “get it.”

• Data beats opinions: whether from surveys, ads, or in-person experiments you don't need a lot of data to make better decisions and you've got no excuse for not collecting data.

• Tips to avoid paralysis by analysis: meet your customers where they are, test only what matters, and keep going.