What happened to the old school pig's bladder?

As the world’s largest sporting event nears its curtain raising game next week and 750 millions viewers get ready to draw up their chairs for the World Cup final on July 11th, a controversy builds around the most essential part to the world’s most popular game: the ball. An article in the New York Times on the subject caught my eye because it made me think, is this another example of a company not talking to it’s customer?

The newly designed ball, christened Jabulani {”to celebrate” in Zulu},  is ruffling the feathers of everyone who kicks it, particularly, goalkeepers. I wont repeat the entire story, you can read it on the NYT’s website.

“The ball was designed to be groovier than a Beach Boys album, made of molded polyurethane panels with a grippy feel, and engineered to provide the shooter maximum control. It has been tested in wind tunnels. Robots whacked at the ball to simulate free kicks and corner kicks. The party-hearty wives and girlfriends of England’s players took it out and got it drunk.”

So it seems that it was tested and researched in every way. Apart from one, that is – with those who are going to use it (the customer). Surely, they tried out this thing with players and asked them what they thought? Maybe not! Obviously, they didn’t take much notice if they did.

It served as a good reality check for me. Do the easy thing and talk to your customers, it’s not rocket science (some ideas). Maybe, i’m over sensitive about this since it’s currently a contentious topic of discussion at my own company, OpenStudy.com.