1. Identifying Customer Needs
Chapter 4: Ulrich and Eppinger

2. Identifying Customer Needs
Goals
Ensure product is focused on customer needs
Identify both explicit and latent/hidden needs
Provide fact base for justifying product specifications
Create archival record of the needs activity
Ensure no critical customer need overlooked
Team understands customer needs

3. Customer Needs Process
Define the Scope
Mission Statement
Gather Raw Data
Interviews
Focus Groups
Observation
Interpret Raw Data
Need Statements
Organize the Needs
Hierarchy
Establish Importance
Surveys
Quantified Needs
Reflect on the Process
Continuous Improvement

4. Project Definition Mission Statement Product Description: ----
Key Business Goals:
Primary Market:
Secondary Market(s)?
Assumptions:
Stakeholders:

5. Customer Needs Example: Cordless Screwdrivers

6. Mission Statement Example: Screwdriver Project
Product Description
A hand-held, power-assisted device for installing threaded fasteners
Key Business Goals
Product introduced in 4th Q of 2000
50% gross margin
10% share of cordless screwdriver market by 2004
Primary Market
Do-it-yourself consumer
Secondary Markets
Casual consumer
Light-duty professional
Assumptions
Hand-held
Power assisted
Nickel-metal-hydride rechargeable battery technology
Stakeholders
User
Retailer
Sales force
Service center
Production
Legal department

7. Identifying Customer Needs
The process:
Gather raw data from customers
Interpret raw data in terms of customer needs
Organize needs into a hierarchy (primary, secondary, etc.)
Establish relative importance of each need
Reflect on the results and the process

8. Identifying Customer Needs
Gather raw data from customers
Interviews
Focus groups
Observing product in use

9. Meeting With The Customers
Proposed Outcomes
Prioritized Outcomes
Prioritized Design Variables
Validated Outcomes & New Outcomes

10. How Many Customers? Percent of Needs Identified
100 80 60
One-on-One Interviews (1 hour)
Focus Groups (2 hours)
Percent of Needs Identified 40 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Number of Respondents or Groups
From: Griffin, Abbie and John R. Hauser. “The Voice of the Customer”, Marketing Science. vol. 12, no. 1, Winter 1993.

11. Visual Information Example: Book Bag Design

12. Needs Translation Exercise: Book Bag Design Example
“See how the leather on the bottom of the bag is all scratched; it’s ugly.”
“When I’m standing in line at the cashier trying to find my checkbook while balancing my bag on my knee, I feel like a stork.”
“This bag is my life; if I lose it I’m in big trouble.”
“There’s nothing worse than a banana that’s been squished by the edge of a textbook.”
“I never use both straps on my knapsack; I just sling it over one shoulder.”

13. Identifying Customer Needs
Interpret raw data in terms of customer needs
Express need as “what”, not “how”
Express the need as specifically as the raw data
Use positive, not negative, phrasing
Express the need as an attribute to the product
Avoid the words must and should

14. Five Guidelines for Writing Needs Statements
Customer Statement
Need Statement: Wrong
Need Statement: Right
“Why don’t you put protective shields around the battery contacts?”
The screwdriver battery contacts are covered by a plastic sliding door.
The screwdriver battery is protected from accidental shorting.
What Not How
“I drop my screwdriver all the time.”
The screwdriver is rugged.
The screwdriver operates normally after repeated dropping.
Specificity
Positive Not Negative
“It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, I still need to work outside on Saturdays.”
The screwdriver is not disabled by the rain.
The screwdriver operates normally in the rain.
Attribute of the Product
“I’d like to charge my battery from my cigarette lighter.”
An automobile cigarette lighter adapter can charge the screwdriver battery.
The screwdriver battery can be charged from an automobile cigarette lighter.
Avoid “Must” and “Should
“I hate it when I don’t know how much juice is left in the batteries of my cordless tools.”
The screwdriver should provide an indication of the energy level of the battery.
The screwdriver provides an indication of the energy level of the battery.

15. Identifying Customer Needs
Organize needs into a hierarchy
(one method)
Print each need on separate card/post-it
Eliminate redundant statements
Group cards according to similar needs met
Choose a label for each group
Create supergroups (2 to 5 groups) where possible
Review / edit the organized need statements

16. Identifying Customer Needs
Establish relative importance of each need
Develop a weighting system for customer needs:
Rely on consensus of the team based on their experience with customers Or
Use further customer surveys

17. Identifying Customer Needs
Reflect on the results and the process
Are results consistent with results of team’s interaction with the customers?
Have all important types of customers in target market been interacted with?
What do we know that we didn’t know when we started? Any surprises?
How can we improve the process?

18. Kano Diagram for Customer Satisfaction
Disgusted
Fully Implemented
Delighted
Basic Expectations
(unspoken)
Performance Wants
(revealed)
Exciters – “wow”
Customer Satisfaction
Product Function
Absent

19. Expected, Requested, and Surprising Performance
Expected Performance
Surprising Performance
Requested Performance
Design Variables
Benefit Derived =Differentiating Outcome

20. Establish Hierarchy, Relative Importance

21. Summary: Identifying Customer Needs
The process:
Gather raw data from customers
Interpret raw data in terms of customer needs
Organize needs into a hierarchy (primary, secondary, etc.)
Establish relative importance of each need
Reflect on the results and the process

22. Caveats Capture “What, Not How”.
Meet customers in the use environment.
Collect visual, verbal, and textual data.
Props will stimulate customer responses.
Interviews are more efficient than focus groups.
Interview all stakeholders and lead users.
Develop an organized list of need statements.
Look for latent needs.
Survey to quantify tradeoffs.
Make a video to communicate results.

23. End