How A Blind Man Invented Cruise Control — A Lesson In Thorough Product Discovery

Ralph Teetor suffered a childhood accident that left him blind in both eyes, yet Teetor went on to invent cruise control for automobiles.

If you asked me what problem cruise control was solving — I would guess someone’s foot became sore on long road trips and they got tired of it.

A secondary use case is probably something about fuel efficiency and the cost of gasoline.

When I was teenager learning to drive, I vaguely recall my mom saying something regarding cruise control being a way to save money on road trips. I also remember another adult telling me to drive with my shoes off so I could feel the accelerator changes more to improve gas mileage, similar to using cruise control.

Doing product stuff for a living — I could build out some great assumptions and product bets around “removing pain points and adding more value for the next generation of X car”, but these features would most likely be centered on driver needs, pain points and outcomes.

My sense is the primary persona is the driver. If I worked at a car company, I would do intensive research around “Jobs to be done” and discovery with the following users:

Teen drivers

Elderly drivers

Drivers with multiple speeding tickets

Drivers who have been in horrible crashes and now have anxiety

Obese drivers/skinny drivers

Foreign born drivers

Drivers with disabilities

Drivers looking for economical cheap cars

Drivers who only lease sports cars and get a new one every 3 years

If I was a product person at a car company — I would research the hell out of automobile drivers and what they need their car to do for them. I would fall in love with the problems of a driver. I would know what was hot in the market and look for patterns on an affinity map. blah blah blah.

But — What About Passengers Of Cars?

Millions of people ride in cars daily and many of them aren’t driving. Why is my gut reaction to go right to the sexy features for a driver? Passengers are experiencing a car ride in a different way than the driver. They are encountering different pain points and deeper pain points.

Empathy for customer/user experience should not end at what you think is your #1 persona.

Passengers are captive users of a (car) product, they cannot control the car in any way, but they are experiencing car features all the same. They feel a bumpy or sketchy ride the same way as a driver. If the tires are bad — they also slide off the road in a snowstorm.

Inventor Ralph Teetor could not drive, but he grew tired of his chauffeur (and attorney) changing speeds as he talked. Teetor was a man known for having a keen sense of touch and feel, so he felt the surges of the automobile. He could sense things that those with eyesight could not.

Teetor was bugged by the jerking he experienced while others drove him at inconsistent speeds.

“Family lore holds that the jerky accelerator foot of Harry Lindsay, Teetor’s patent attorney, friend and frequent chauffeur, originally inspired cruise control.”

Allegedly — the friend would slow down while talking and speed up while listening.

Another factor in Teetor dreaming up cruise control was safety. But I like the idea of a person lacking sight — experiencing pain points in a car ride and creating one of the most impactful and important automobile features ever. It also laid the groundwork for the future of driverless cars.

360 degree context is everything when asking for customer stories and pain points in product discovery.

We need to dive deeper when uncovering pain points for our customers and users. Empathy for the user experience should be inclusive of all personas impacted by a product choice.

The more I do product — the more I am curious about the ancillary parts of a problem to solve. There are less obvious problems out there for us to solve, and more subtle personas waiting for us to improve their experience.

I am guessing Teetor wouldn’t tell his driver, “this handle would be cool if it were carbon fiber.”

We need to interview the Ralph Teetors of the world before we build features, so that we can find our product’s version of cruise control.

Citations:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/sightless-visionary-who-invented-cruise-control-180968418/