The Deepest Truths Have to Be Discovered
One of the places I've learned to pay the closest attention is when people do something that doesn't quite make sense.
Not because I assume they're wrong.
Because I assume they know something I don't.
Over the years, I've spent countless hours talking with consumers, customers, and organizational leaders, trying to understand not just what they do, but why. Some of those conversations happened in people's homes. Others took place in grocery stores, manufacturing facilities, conference rooms, and formal research sessions.
The methods weren't always conventional. We asked people to create poems with magnetic words. We invited them to revisit childhood memories. We looked for ways to uncover thoughts and feelings that rarely surface in a traditional interview.
One of the most important lessons I learned about insight came while working on Cheerios. We spent countless hours talking with parents about introducing solid food to their babies. They gave us thoughtful, practical answers. They talked about nutrition. They talked about choking. They talked about convenience.
All of those things mattered.
But they weren't the whole story.
What eventually emerged wasn't another functional product benefit. It was an emotional milestone. Parents weren't simply feeding their child cereal. They were watching one of the first visible signs that their baby was becoming independent.
Most parents never described it that way.
It wasn't something we uncovered because someone finally said the right words. It emerged because we stayed with the experience long enough to recognize what it meant.
Years later, while working with IDEO on new cereal concepts, I finally understood why.
Instead of interviewing people who loved breakfast, they wanted us talking to breakfast rejecters.
It seemed completely backward until they explained their reasoning. People who reject something are often better able to articulate what's missing than the people who accept it without thinking. That idea has stayed with me ever since.
Once you begin looking for those hidden truths, you start seeing them everywhere.
I've seen it in the homes of older adults trying to make healthier choices. One woman proudly told us she had stopped buying hard candy because she wanted to lower her cholesterol.
Nutritionally, it didn't make any sense.
It would have been easy to dismiss her logic and move on.
Instead, we stayed curious.
As we talked, it became clear that giving up the candy wasn't really about cholesterol. It was one small action that helped her feel like she was taking control of her health. That single conversation eventually shaped how we thought about helping people make meaningful progress through small, manageable steps instead of overwhelming lifestyle changes.
I've seen the same pattern while shopping on the weekly grocery budget of families in Mexico during an economic downturn. Products I had always thought of as serving one purpose suddenly had to serve three or four. Versatility wasn't simply a nice feature. It was survival. It was value.
More recently, I've watched parents describe a youth organization whose mission they genuinely loved, only to discover that the mission wasn't keeping them away. The format was. The purpose still resonated. Life had simply changed around it and now required a new "wrapper."
Different industries.
Different questions.
The same pattern.
The insight didn't come from asking a better survey question.
It came from staying with something that didn't quite make sense long enough to understand it.
I've learned to resist the temptation to explain those moments away.
Because more often than not, that's where the truth is hiding.
The temptation is to keep asking better questions. I've come to believe the better discipline is paying closer attention.
Some of the deepest truths don't need better explanations.
They have to be discovered.
About the Author
Kymm Martinez is the founder of Wilder Marketing Group, a strategic marketing consultancy, and a two-time Chief Marketing Officer with experience at organizations ranging from General Mills to nonprofits to universities. She writes about strategy, positioning, and what it actually takes to build marketing that works. Subscribe to The Wilder Brief -- monthly observations on strategy, messaging, and growth.
Comments