The importance of understanding what the customer really means

Dr. Tom Saaty (founder of AHP) in his 17th "Thinking Man's Jokebook" (1994), tells this story, paraphrased here.

Norse mythology tree and rocks,
painted by Oluf Olufsen Bagge 1847
Wikipedia Commons

Two anthropologists travel to two remote islands to study the natives. After a few months, one visits his colleague on the other island to compare notes.

"How is it going?" he asks. The other replies, "I have discovered an important fact about their language. Watch."

He points to a tree and asks "what is that?" The natives reply in unison, "umbalo-gong."  Then he points to a rock and asks "what is that?" The natives reply in unison, "umbalo-gong."

The anthropologist exclaims "You see, they use the same word for tree and for rock."

The visiting anthropologist is astonished and replies, "That is truly amazing. On the other island, the same word means 'index finger.'"

So take care to analyze the voice of the customer. Use at least two people, preferably a marketing type and a technology type, to look at the context and the words, translate into product-independent needs, and validate with the customer with the affinity diagram, hierarchy diagram, and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).