Identifying Customer Needs

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Identifying Customer Needs

• How the rest of engineering does it!
• From Product Design and Development, Chapter 4
• Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. EppingerThird
  Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2004.

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Product Development Process
Concept Development
System-Level Design
Detail Design
Testing and Refinement
Production Ramp-Up
Planning
(Typically with reviews after each)
(Initial)
Identifying Customer Needs
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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

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Types of Customer Needs

• Direct Need
• concern about product, easy to determine
• Latent Need
• requires probing to find
• maybe not product related but use/system related
• Constant Need
• intrinsic to the product
• Variable Need
• removed by a technology change
• General Need
• applies to all customers
• Niche Need
• small market segment

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Mission Statement and Technical Clarifications
1. Define the Scope

• Focus Design Efforts
• Define Project Goals (measurable)
• Involve development/design team in business
  case/analysis
• Project Schedule
• Tasks, timelines, milestones
• Provide guidelines for design process

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Above Mars One, a mission requiring plenty of
planning!
From Product Design Otto and Wood, Prentice-Hall
(2001)
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Customer Needs ExampleCordless Screwdrivers
?
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Mission StatementExample 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

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Gather Data From Customers
2. Gather Raw Data

• Interviews
• In customer environment
• Focus Groups
• Groups of 8-12 customers
• Observing Product in Use

What Did Ideo Do ??
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Data Gathering Methods and Outcomes
From http//www.betterproductdesign.net/guide/use
rs.htm, accessed June 6, 2004
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How Many Customers?
100
80
60
Percent of Needs Identified
40
20
10 to 50 Sessions
0
0
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.
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Choosing the Customer

• Often the case that
• One person buys it,
• Another uses it,
• Someone else services it,
• Etc.
• Talk to each group !

If you were doing this project Agile, which one
would you pick as the customer who hangs around
with the team regularly?
What Did Ideo Do ??
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Identify Lead Users

• Customers who experience needs before the
  majority of the market.
• Benefit from product innovations,
• Can clearly state emerging needs,
• Have already invented solutions.

What Did Ideo Do ??
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Exploring Requirements

• Ambiguity
• Choice of Words
• What we want vs.
• What we dont want

From Gause and Weinberg, Exploring Requirements
Dorset House Publishing, 1989.
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Context Free Questions

• Context-free Product questions
• When and why do you use this product ?
• Walk us through using it.
• What do you like about it?
• What issues do you consider in purchasing?
• What improvements would you recommend?

From Gause and Weinberg, Exploring Requirements
Dorset House Publishing, 1989.
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Context Free Questions

• Context-free Process questions
• What is a solution worth to the client?
• How much time do we have for the project?
• How should we organize the teams?

From Gause and Weinberg, Exploring Requirements
Dorset House Publishing, 1989.
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Context Free Questions

• Metaquestions
• Am I asking too many questions?
• Is there anything else I should be asking you?
• Is there anyone else I should be talking to?

From Gause and Weinberg, Exploring Requirements
Dorset House Publishing, 1989.
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Documenting Customer Data

• Audio, Video Recording
• Notes
• Photography

What Did Ideo Do ??
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Raw Data to Needs Statements
3. Interpret the Data

1. What not How.
2. Express need as specifically as raw data.
3. Use positive, not negative phrasing.
4. Express need as attribute of the product.
5. Avoid must and should.

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Examples Typical Use

• Customer statement
• I need to drive screws fast, faster than by
  hand..
• Interpreted need

Hey this looks like a user story!
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Examples Typical Use

• Customer statement
• I sometimes do duct work and use sheet metal
  screws..
• Interpreted need

Ditto
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Examples Current Tool Likes

• Customer statement
• I like the pistol gripit feels the best.
• Interpreted need

Could you make this look like user story?
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Examples Current Tool Likes

• Customer statement
• I like the magnetized tip
• Interpreted need

Ditto?
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Examples Current Tool Dislikes

• Customer statement
• I dont like it when the tip slips off the screw
• Interpreted need

Ditto?
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Examples Current Tool Dislikes

• Customer statement
• I would like to be able to lock it so I can use
  it with a dead battery..
• Interpreted need

Ditto?
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Examples Current Tool Dislikes

• Customer statement
• Cant drive screws into hard wood..
• Interpreted need

Ditto?
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Examples Suggested Improvements

• Customer statement
• A point so I can scrape paint off screw heads..
• Interpreted need

Ditto?
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Five Guidelines for Writing Needs Statements
Guideline
Customer Statement
Need Statement-Wrong
Need Statement-Right
Why dont 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 doesnt matter if its 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
Id 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 dont 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.
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Organized List of Customer Needs
4. Organize the Needs
How would we do the organization differently if
they were software user stories?
What Did Ideo Do ??
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Establish Relative Priorities
5. Establish Importance

• Consensus of Team Members
• Further Surveys of Customers
• Establish Rankings on 1 to 5 Scale
• 1. feature is undesirable would not consider a
  product with this feature
• 5. feature is critical would not consider a
  product without this feature

Ditto?
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Summary

• 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.

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Visual Information Example Book Bag Design
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Needs Translation ExerciseBook Bag Design
Example

1. See how the leather on the bottom of the bag is
   all scratched its ugly.
2. When Im standing in line at the cashier trying
   to find my checkbook while balancing my bag on my
   knee, I feel like a stork.
3. This bag is my life if I lose it Im in big
   trouble.
4. Theres nothing worse than a banana thats been
   squished by the edge of a textbook.
5. I never use both straps on my knapsack I just
   sling it over one shoulder.

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And, did we get close to what Ideo would do?

• Heres the latest trend in backpacks My wife
  has one similar