真是左右为难呀。

Historically, Intuit products had dominated their markets by being significantly easier to use than competitors’. But soon competitors were catching up, so Intuit launched an effort to improve ease of use and NPS. It spent even more time with customers, observed detractors, and redesigned products. “We put a big focus on making our products easier to use,” says Kaaren Hanson, design vice-president. “And when this company decides to go after something, we do it. So we pulled the lever.” But these traditional management moves failed to move the meter. “Our net promoter scores didn’t budge,” Hanson says. “And it didn’t result in a big jump in sales, which is what we expected. We pulled the damn lever, and nothing happened.”

In other areas of the company, customer response to new products was especially disappointing. “We were humbled when we looked back at ten years of innovation,” says CEO Brad Smith, who took over for Steve Bennett in 2008. “We’d launched fifty-four products, and fewer than five had achieved any commercial success, measured by revenue or profit. And we were bad at shutting down the failures. When we did, we got labeled as not being patient enough.”