Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You send the product back to development after tasting it yourself.
Despite the nagging feeling that one of your panelists rated the chocolate badly because she was having a disagreement with another panelist, you tasted the chocolate yourself. You decided it had a strange aftertaste that should not be there.
After several more months in development, the chocolate is sent to your panel again to obtain a consumer acceptability rating. This time, even though the same panelist is having a disagreement with another panelist, the chocolate is given a 9.3 consumer rating.
You taste the chocolate, and the aftertaste that was there before is gone. You are satisfied that you have done the right thing, and when the chocolate is a success on the market. You are given the raise you have been asking for.
Silvia King, a sensory analyst, says that decision making is sometimes the hardest part of the job.
"I would say the toughest part of the job is not so much gathering the information, but in making it easy for our people to decide they can move forward with a project or to decide we need to step back a little. Sometimes we don't get clear direction from our consumers, and then we have to dig in and get more answers."