Do you think, and I might be reaching here, that the fact that companies are so shockingly out of touch with customer needs is related to the absolute indifference of companies towards consumer research?

When I made the switch from market research to UX, I noticed that many companies had no market researchers at all.

Research was folded into generic product marketing and design roles and conducted by people with no training in research. Their research work was pretty dreadful and few real insights gained.

As a UX Researcher, I was instructed to try to explain to adults in management roles why it might be a good idea to find out what customers might want to buy before building it.

I've gone from shocked to frustrated and now I'm just angry.

Like Diana Rigg in Game of Thrones, I want to tell everyone to shut up and let the grown ups speak: you've failed, your products are shitty and your customers are miserable.

It's time to get back to having people who know what they are doing exercising proper skills in identifying user needs.