When asked what market research went into the iPad, Jobs replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want…we figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too.”

Crazy, right? Being the market research aficionado I am, I found this quote particularly surprising. But it makes sense if you think about it. Apple’s team of highly skilled designers and innovators is the target market for Apple’s products. If they create a product that they themselves would use, there’s a good chance that the rest of us will like it too. Second, many of Apple’s products are disruptive technologies, meaning their products create new markets that no one could have predicted. If Apple showed their iPad to a focus group before people knew they wanted tablets, it’s likely that the feedback would not have been very useful.