When doing business research – especially when doing market research – we oftentimes spend a lot of time trying to predict customer behavior.  We work hard to look at what customers want and what customers need, and we try to invent new ways of fulfilling those needs.

According to analyst Adrian Slywotzky, who just wrote a book entitled, “Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It” (available in a library near you this fall!), perhaps we should be looking at and addressing  some of the reasons they have those needs, and the problems that cause them in order to help determine demand before customers even realized they have it.  He calls this creating a “hassle map,” and gives the examples of  ways that Netflix, Bloomberg,  and  Factset have all used this idea to their advantage.

Find out more about this unique take on demand theory by reading other books by Slywotzky, or check out this interview with him that was recently published in the New York Times.