From Wired - Google May Roll Out Features That People Actually Want

From WIRED.COM: Google May Roll Out Features That People Actually Want | Epicenter from Wired.com.

"What typically happens is it is just a load of engineers producing a load of things and then refining until it finds an audience," said Stewart Smith, the strategic planning director of Google's Creative Lab in New York. "What they have never really done is to look at audiences and understand audiences and say 'perhaps there is a need over here -- let's meet that need'. Now I think they have seen an opportunity to come at it from an audience perspective and that is part of what any planners' job is -- to understand audiences.

True.  But sometimes, the audiences don't know what they want until they see it.  And that has been the Google magic: to create stuff that we never thought we'd use - until one day it becomes a part of our daily lives and we can't live without it.

Is this "business-speak" for making R&D and engineers more accountable?

I honestly hope that this doesn't stop Google engineers from being creative.