Well for a start it shouldn't be an either/or proposition.
“72% of companies believe their budget for customer insights is too low, according to a recent survey of almost 700 senior executives we completed. Even more disturbing, only 6% of companies surveyed understand customer needs extremely well while 45% of companies admit they have limited to no understanding on how their customers interact with them digitally.”
Source: The funnel is dead: Long live the consumer decision journey | McKinsey Marketing and Sales, Edelman and Banfi (2014)
I read this the other day and was wondering why is it that customer data and analytics are not recorded and acted upon. Obviously it is hard if you don’t have expertise and are not sure what to measure. But then I read this
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported:
“Close to 60% of executives rely on their intuition or the advice of an experienced or trusted colleague rather than data, according to the survey of 1135 C-suite and board level executives undertaken by the [Economist Intelligence Unit]EIU in May this year.”
“And it seems Australian executives are more willing to go with their gut... 68% of Australian respondents said they relied most on either their own gut instinct (40%), or that of a trusted colleague (28%).”
"Only 22% in Australia relied on data and analytics to make their big decisions."
Source: Forget data, executives go with gut instinct, Durkin, Patrick, Australian Financial Review, 16 September 2014
This also helps explains why user testing is such a hard sell to executive
Data or Gut shouldn’t be an either/or question. Timely consideration and adjustments based on data and analytics in iterative fashion are what I recommend.
After all even Luke Skywalker didn't rely solely on his feelings when attacking the Death Star. He attended a data based briefing before attacking the Death Star. Only after getting close to his target did he use 'the force' (i.e. his gut) to guide himself to glory.