Newsletter September 17, 2024

Every home has at least one bathtub. 

The average tub holds somewhere between 100 and 150 gallons of water.  Now, imagine if that tub was filled with dirt.

Yes, filthy, grimy, gritty dirt. 

Here’s the thing about dirt.  It’s kind of stealth.  It sneaks up on you, a little bit at a time.  Sometimes you can’t see it, but you always know it’s there. 

No matter how you try to stop it, it keeps on coming in.  A bathtub full of dirt gets tracked in or blown in through cracks in your doors and windows every year.  Turns out, that’s a big problem.

In a focus group I moderated in Columbus, Ohio about household appliances, a working mom named Julie told me, “Is there anything filthier than trying to change a vacuum cleaner bag?  Pardon the pun, but it really, truly sucks.” 

Julie used a typical vacuum cleaner. It conceals the dirt in an expandable bag.  You think the dirt’s been captured, but you really aren’t sure until you change it.  But when you change it, wow, what a mess. 

As with most problems, it’s simple to see, but complicated to solve. 

Enter entrepreneur James Dyson. He solved the bag problem but it only It took him 5,271 attempts to get it right.   Dyson vacuum cleaners show the dirt other vacuum cleaners hide.  Dyson once told Wired Magazine, “We look at something that has a problem…then we develop a technology.”

Dyson works on solving long-standing customer pain points long before producing any product.  He used the trial-and-error method made famous by Thomas Edison.  He created an incredible 5,271 prototypes before he was ready to introduce it to the marketplace.

Dyson believed that most existing upright or canister types of vacuum cleaners did a poor job of sucking up the dirt and were a mess to keep clean.   Often called “constructive discontent”, big problems get solved by creative people like Dyson.

The problem is really that suction power is reduced because dust, pet hair and dirt clog bags and filters. Dyson’s invention relies on what he calls the “cyclonic action of centrifugal force”.  With no bag to get in the way, a Dyson vacuum can keep performing at a maximum level. 

“They maintain constant maximum suction,” he says. “All the time it’s working to full efficiency, cleaning your home.” 

Big insight: Dyson wanted the customer to have visual proof that the technology does what it says it would do.  That’s why he wanted them to see the dirt disappear as it filled the vacuum’s clear plastic body.  This would be proof of his invention’s superior simplicity.  He knew people didn’t like the idea of an expanding bad full of dirt that couldn’t be seen. 

Dyson faced reluctant retailers who told him he would never be able to sell a vacuum cleaner where the dirt was visible. Of course, tradition bound vacuum sellers had another motive; they believed that bags were the gift that kept on giving.  They were used to a customer that had to return to the store to buy more bags.  Their waiting salespeople could then sell them a slightly new and improved version of the same old vacuum cleaner. 

Dealers asked Dyson to do some market research.  He reluctantly complied and found that they were right; most people didn’t want to see the dirt, they just wanted it to go away. 

Wisdom to Fuel Your Business Growth

Here’s what can you need to learn from Dyson.

His story teaches that the most important connection to the customer is careful observation of their real world.  His innovative solutions have come from figuring out how to bridge the gap between customer need (“clean floors”) and inventing a marketable product.

To that end, James Dyson delivers an incredibly simple lesson for everyone in business.

“You can’t go and ask your customers to be your inventors. That’s your job.“