Computer Says No
The Digital Dead End
Last week, I had a brake disc warning light appear on the dashboard. It is a standard issue that should be a simple journey: I have a problem, you have the tools, tell me when to arrive. You might think a national car sales group with a multi-million pound marketing budget would find this easy to manage
I was forced into a digital pathway poorly derived for any human mission. The website looked great, but it was style over substance
The Forced Path
The dealership site offered a menu for service, repairs, and MOT. The moment I entered my vehicle data, the logic collapsed. The system was only capable of processing a standard service. There was an open response box for other issues, but the software would not let me submit it unless I also committed to a full service
This is the forced path in action. I did not need an oil change, I needed brakes. The website could not effortlessly process a targeted request. It was a digital dead end designed for the convenience of the dealership, not the driver
And when the digital mission fails, the consumer experience is unfulfilled frustration.
The outcome was inevitable
The Internal Echo Chamber
How does a major brand let this happen? It happens because of internal conditioning.
Teams use their own staff to test these journeys. Internal staff are already conditioned to the path. They know what the brand is trying to do, so they subconsciously avoid the friction. They navigate with a map the real customer does not have; they skip lines that the customer is not sure they can cross.
The Synthetic Safety Net
The solution is no longer a luxury for sophisticated marketing teams. Advanced platforms now allow for rigorous screening through synthetic data that mimics real user journeys. By training algorithms on actual human testing panels, brands can set a hypothesis for deep testing and find key friction before the customer does. It is a way to ‘brake test’ the system without the bias of the boardroom
The Dashboard Delusion
Boards love red and green data metrics. They provide a comfortable illusion of control, even though data is not insight. A green metric for time spent on site often masks a customer trapped in a digital loop. Understanding the why is the only way to fix the how.
The Final Toll
If you only test for the journey you want the customer to take, you are designing for a user that does not exist. Stop marking your own homework. Put yourself in the consumer shoes, with the consumer.
Observing real humans in real life