In creative work, votes eliminate the interesting edges, because votes result in subtracting rather than adding, leaving only the boring residue that no one hated enough to vote off the island.

Another brilliant article from Jason Cohen here. The shared examples highlight so clearly the wisdom of crowds when there’s a clear right outcome. But with anything creative that is almost never the case. As the example describes, trying to find a meal that pleases everyone will only result in something bland. Building something new and using the wisdom of crowds is therefore likely to suffer the same fate.

This is a part of product management that I often struggle with. A lot of literature (using the term lightly to also include a heavy dose of “thought leadership”) discusses the merits of regularly talking to customers. Understanding their problem to therefore determine the solution that gets them to spend more money, time, effort with your product. This makes a lot of sense for a mature product where your goal is perhaps to nudge a few metrics in the right direction. But creating something new, from scratch, something genuinely innovative - does it work in the same way? Doesn’t applying these techniques and practices in that scenario only increase the chances of producing a bland meal?

Perhaps this is why many founders - whilst often very adept with product - often shy away from more formal theories. Of course, the need to communicate with customers - and every other stakeholder - is vital to learn and improve. But at least in the early stages it should be one of many inputs to your creativity. One that perhaps starts small and grows over time as your product matures. If you’re starting from scratch and don’t have enough conviction that there’s something there, the wisdom of crowds won’t help you create something genuinely new and exciting.