The cooperative brewery down the street from me holds quarterly homebrew competitions, and this quarter was an “Iron Chef” style competition requiring use three of six “secret” ingredients (Basil, Sage, Spruce Tips, Berries, Hot Peppers, Cinnamon).
Since brewers weren’t restricted by style, the variety of the dozen entries was incredible. every beer completely unlike the next. In tasting these, I noticed two things:
- People have wildly different preferences and taste palates. My favorites were hated by others. Others picked out flavor notes I completely missed.
- Judging for this style of competition ends up focusing more on the novelty of the hidden flavors than it does the technical characteristics of the beer or traditional judges of quality (body, hop profile, mouthfeel, etc). The beers that were most talked about were those using the most outrageous flavor combinations.
You can’t forget the end user is not a homogeneous “persona”, despite your best planning. And when you deeply personalize your experience, you’ll always appeal to some users, and drive away others.
Novelty is a double edged sword. It can help build buzz and interest in your work, but you risk alienating your audience by leaning on it too heavily. Novelty can distract, but not make up for poor quality.