[asimpletune]

I don’t see why those things couldn’t have been invented by this process?

The article specifically states that you focus on your potential customer’s problems, not the solutions they want or would use. Ie, you’re not asking if they want a better horse, but you are asking what sucks about the one they have today.

From there better shoes, saddles, or even a car/plane can come out of that discussion.

[gfodor]

I don't think the kinds of 'problems' people may have articulated that these things solve would have been revelatory enough to argue they fit into this process. At best, the problems would have been so general like "I am uneducated about the world" or "it takes a long time to travel between places" that they are effectively immaterial when it comes to the process that led to these innovations.

For example, if someone told you today "I don't like that I am going to die one day", would you be able to iterate your way via customer development to stop death? Would the fact that people don't want to die be incorporated in the understanding of the process that led to any solution that gets created? No. Some problems are either so obvious or so non-obvious that the spark of insight that leads to solutions is barely influenced by the articulation of the problem or lack thereof by those who are suffering under it, often completely oblivious of it.