Case Against Data Driven Design / Management

This is not exactly automotive related, but it does touch upon how many products, including cars are developed. Mega corporations, particularly Japanese are known to be extremely reliant on statistics data from their very extensive market research and car clinics. Almost every single decision in the throughout the product planning and vehicle development stage is based upon market research data. Objectively, there is nothing wrong with that.

But there is another school of thought who believed that data is only as good as the people who read it. And data can always be manipulated in certain ways and be taken entirely out of context to please the senior management of a company. At its worse case, market data is often used as an excuse for lack of creative thought or willingness to change.

I came across this interesting article, forwarded to me by a friend who works in the energy sector but complains of the same problem with data driven management.

Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.

Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle. Read more here.

Granted, the author is from a design background and is more likely to find such environment stiffling. Google has been a case studies for almost every top business school. But like all large companies, the bigger a company gets the higher the stakes. Business leaders tend to rather stay within the comfort zone and make every decision purely on hard data.

But think about it this way, Apple didn't went through a series of product clinics to come out with the iPod. Data driven design gave you the Corolla. Creative thought and risk taking gave you the iPod (and iPhone). Both are really brilliant products that formed the core of both Toyota and Apple. But which would you rather see more?

Also market data is only good at telling things that people already know, but are lousy at trying out new ideas and design. Can you imagine what would happen if BMW were to allow market data to dictate their vehicle designs? When those flame surfacing came out, everyone poo poo-ed them. But now almost every manufacturer is aping them in one way or another. I also remember the outgoing CEO of Honda Malaysia Atsushi Fujimoto said when asked why white was not offered as a colour option for the City. His reply was that their market data showed no significant interest in the colour, which was rather odd given that white was never offered on any Honda car locally in the first place.

Cultural norms are another issue with market research data. Truthfulness of survey / car clinic respondents differ from country to country. Asian cultures, particularly may not be so direct in criticising an idea / product, but they do show their displeasure when it comes to the actual purchase process. And to some managers, they will read the data as country A is more receptive to this than country B, when in actual fact it is a case of failing to look at data in a right cultural context. The product still sucks badly in both countries.

Safety items like ESP and seatbelts would not be invented in the first place if Mercedes-Benz and Volvo relied purely on market data. People naturally do not know that they need / appreciate until someone comes out in the market and shows it to them. Which is why Toyota will continue to invent ever more fancy airbags, because that's what customers want - something big and dramatic to blow up in their face.


While Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo will include multi-stage intensity brake lights and hazard lights that flashes under emergency braking and blind spot indication system to prevent people from crashing in the first place! Even when nobody is telling them that they need this.