Misusing vision as an excuse to skip validation is how Steve Jobs wannabes burn cash.

“People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Followed by: “It’s not the customer’s job to know what they want.”

Steve Jobs wannabes love, love LOVE this damned quote.

It feels like permission to press ahead with unvalidated ideas and assume the market will inevitably see what they see.

There are two major flaws in that logic.

First, Jobs was a unicorn visionary. (Yet even he shipped products that failed.) Quoting him does not transfer his judgment, timing, or taste (and definitely not his budget) to you.

Second, the quote is often misused.

Prospective buyers may not yet be able to describe the exact product they need. For sure.

They may not visualize the interface or articulate the ideal feature set.

But they DO know what frustrates the heck out of them.

They know what steals their time. They know what they are paying for today and how much they despise it. And they know what they would switch for, and (very importantly) roughly how much they would shell out for it, in real money, today.

THAT is the stuff you validate.

The innovator’s job is to create something new and different.

The founder’s responsibility is to ensure that the market values that new thing enough to fund development, packaging, marketing, manufacturing, fulfillment, support, profit, and future R&D.

Customers do not need to clearly imagine your solution.

That’s the unique value you bring.

They DO need to desire the outcome badly enough to pay a premium for it.

To fund all that essential stuff I just mentioned.

You need proof of that intense desire, beyond mere words.

If they do not pony up actual cash, consistently, the vision is nothing but vanity holding up a pipe dream.

And the product, if you build it, will be a colossal waste of time and money.

What’s your favourite Steve Jobs-ism?

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing consultants at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.