Two quotes from a recent New York Times piece on why user research in invaluable get to heart of why consumers and companies need to talk.

“I was intrigued by the fact that people in the microcontroller industry won’t actually be the people who invent what they’re used for,” Mr. Ford said. “If there is a guy who knows about microcontrollers and a pig farmer who knows about pigs, it will be the pig farmer who will see how to automate feeding his animals so he can sleep more.”

“I want to see how you get people to experiment. Maybe a washing machine repair man will figure out how to get the machines to report back to him and revolutionize the machines to get a competitive advantage. The point is that I don’t know what they’ll be used for.”

Quotes are from a researcher leading the efforts of ARM to put kits for microcontrollers in hands of everyday people. The project is named mbed.

This article inspires me to remind people that we know our hesitations when it comes to purchasing and sometimes, we the consumers, know how to solve the. User research brings this type of insight back into the organization for the different teams to use as fodder in their work – and after a few sets of iterations, we may see a product that does something useful for people.

From the New York Times, You Too Can Join the Internet Of Things, September 20, 2010.