Left to battle over who has the Biggest Gut

Sometimes ideas are sold or shot down based on nothing more than intuition.

We have a lot of conversations about the feasibility of an idea… or whether a design for an application is a good one… or how much customers will pay for a service.

It’s okay to start by trusting your gut, but let’s keep a couple things in mind:

1. The Battle of the Biggest Gut
   The intuition battle is fought on uneven ground. Without data, we open up to making decisions based on fear, seniority, and political ties, or whatever else gives someone a bigger gut.
2. We might not be our target user
   If your response to an idea is “I wouldn’t like that,” you are speaking for yourself only, not the other 8 billion people on the planet.
3. Even Steve Jobs was wrong sometimes
   The very best people are only right 90% of the time. And we don’t know when they are wrong until after we try the wrong idea.

The solution is not surprising…
… and it’s data.  Build a test.  If you have two opposing ideas, pit them against each other in a user test battle.
Start with your gut; end with real-world feedback.