---
title: "Gladwell's rather old TED talk on how people choose"
author: "Stan Voo"
url: https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/gladwells-ted-talk-on-how-people-choose
published: 2012-08-23
summary: "Why focus groups are useless, in one old TED talk and one line from a Ukrainian conference: don't listen to the user, watch what they do."
---

# Gladwell's rather old TED talk on how people choose

*(Video lost: Malcolm Gladwell's TED talk on how people choose.)*

This is why focus groups are useless, for example.

At the ["Thanks, Cap!"](http://2012.thankscap.com.ua/) forum (as in "thanks, Captain Obvious") someone made a good point on the subject:

> Don't listen to the user. Watch what they do.