I always enjoy Jeff Bezos' annual letter to investors. This year's letter is no exception and the company is certainly pushing the envelope in lots of innovative areas that still align with its core business(es). 

In the past, Amazon has been dinged on being overly-fixated on hyper-optimization that only moves the overall product experience needle incrementally. Lots of data-driven decision-making, A/B testing, etc.

That actually seems to be shifting a bit within the org and the following paragraphs definitely stood out: 

"Another example: market research and customer surveys can become proxies for customers – something that’s especially dangerous when you’re inventing and designing products. “Fifty-five percent of beta testers report being satisfied with this feature. That is up from 47% in the first survey.” That’s hard to interpret and could unintentionally mislead.

Good inventors and designers deeply understand their customer. They spend tremendous energy developing that intuition. They study and understand many anecdotes rather than only the averages you’ll find on surveys. They live with the design.

I’m not against beta testing or surveys. But you, the product or service owner, must understand the customer, have a vision, and love the offering. Then, beta testing and research can help you find your blind spots. A remarkable customer experience starts with heart, intuition, curiosity, play, guts, taste. You won’t find any of it in a survey."

Great stuff. 

Marc