I remember sitting in a meeting, trying to make the case for customer interviews for a new product. The response from a senior leader? "We've been in this industry for 20 years. We are the customer."
That belief is one of the most expensive assumptions a business can make.
Every major business decision—a new product, a rebrand, a new marketing strategy—is a risk. The question isn't "can we afford to do customer research?", but "can we afford to be wrong?".
You'll often hear leadership say, "We can just improve it after it's live." And of course, that’s true. But there's a world of difference between tuning a high-performance engine and scrambling to fix one that was built wrong from day one.
Customer research is what ensures you build the right thing in the first place. It’s how you de-risk those big bets and invest with confidence.
Building that case starts with understanding the real cost of getting it wrong. Here's what's at stake.
When you skip research—or worse, ignore it—the consequences show up everywhere.
It shows up as wasted time. Developers spend an estimated 50% of their time on avoidable rework, fixing features that are poorly conceived or don't meet user needs.
It shows up as wasted budget. The cost of fixing an error after development is 100x that of fixing it before development.
It shows up as ignored evidence. I saw this play out when a former employer decided to build a new product feature. I did my due diligence and spoke to at least 10 customers. The feedback was unanimous: nobody wanted it. Leadership, however, was convinced they knew best and pushed ahead. The result? The feature was a complete flop, wasting months of development time and resources.
And it shows up as misinterpreted data. As a content marketer, I’ve heard this pushback, too: "We have so much quantitative data, we don't need to talk to people." But your analytics can only tell you what is happening—like a low conversion rate on a key landing page. They can never tell you why. Without the "why," your solution is just a shot in the dark.
So, how do you find that 'why'? This is where leaders often hesitate. The word 'research' brings to mind massive, six-figure projects undertaken by big consulting firms. But getting to the heart of what your customers think doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.
Effective research can be lean, fast, and agile.
The most valuable insights are often already inside your building. Before you spend a euro, start by talking to your own experts:
You don't need a huge sample size to spot powerful patterns. You can gain incredible insight from just 5 to 8 customer interviews. These sessions don't need to be long; 15-20 minutes is often enough to get the answers you need for a specific problem. The goal isn't to ask everything; it's to ask the right one or two questions.
The most successful companies don't treat research as a one-off project. They build it into their culture. This can be as simple as creating a dedicated Slack channel where salespeople post insights from calls, or a shared folder where interview notes are stored. When everyone contributes what they hear, you quickly build a rich picture of your customer without ever launching a massive, formal project.
In the rush to be efficient, it’s tempting to see AI as a replacement for this kind of human-centric work. It’s not.
Asking an AI to "research" a topic is just repackaging information that already exists. It’s a powerful way to analyze secondary sources, but it can’t generate primary insight from your actual customers. More dangerously, it creates an illusion of insight—a polished, confident-sounding answer that might be based on flawed data or reinforce your own biases.
AI can’t spot nuance. It doesn’t know what questions weren't asked. And it can’t replicate the strategic thinking needed to turn raw data into a real-world business decision. Use it as a tool, but never mistake it for true customer understanding.
Now that you see how lean the research process can be, let's connect it to a financial return. While pinning down direct attribution can be tricky, this framework helps you build a powerful directional case that proves value.
The financial calculation is only part of the story. Some of the most transformative benefits of research show up in ways you can't put directly on a spreadsheet.
"Soft ROI" refers to benefits that are less tangible but critically important for long-term health and success. While they're harder to measure, you can track them with smart "proxy metrics" to build an even stronger case.
When you combine these points with the hard financial ROI, the case for research becomes undeniable.
Investing in customer insight isn’t just about better campaigns. It’s about de-risking your product roadmap, aligning your teams, and making smarter business decisions. The goal of research isn’t a dense report; it’s decisive action. And the result of that action is measurable, confident growth.
These lean methods are powerful. But if you want to accelerate the process with a proven structure, my Four-Day Persona Research Sprint is the perfect starting point. It’s a simple, ready-made way to get the customer insights you need, fast.