Identifying Customer

Needs
Thomas A. Roemer

1
Generic Product Development
Process

Concept System-Level Detail Testing

Testingand Production
Planning Concept System-Level Detail and Production
Planning Development Design Design Refinement Ramp-Up
Development Design Design Refinement Ramp-Up

Mission Concept System Spec Critical Design Production

Approval Review Review Review Approval

2
Class Projects: Gantt Chart
Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 FP
Project Proposals
Mission &
Customer Needs
Concept Generation
& Sketches
Concept Refinement
& Schedule
Proof-of Concept

Detail Design
Financial Model
& Patent Review
Develop Alpha
Prototype
Final Presentation
& Demonstration

Assignment Work Due Refinement

3
 Concept Development Process
Concept
Planning Concept System-Level
System-Level
Detail
Detail
Testing and
Testing and
Production
Production
Planning Development Design Design Refinement Ramp-Up
Development Design Design Refinement Ramp-Up

Mission Concept System Spec Critical Design Production

Approval Review Review Review Approval

Mission Development
Statement Identify Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Customer Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Needs Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

4
Customer Needs Process
z Define the Scope
z Mission Statement
z Gather Raw Data
z Observation
z Interviews
z Focus Groups
z Interpret Raw Data
z Need Statements
z Organize the Needs
z Hierarchy
z Establish Importance
z Surveys
z Reflect on the Process
z Continuous Improvement

5
Mission Statement
z Product Description
z An easy to use, portable device for removing bacteria and protozoan parasites from
water
z Key Business Goals
z Product introduced in Summer 1993
z 50% gross margin
z 30% share of portable water filter retail sales within 2 years of introduction
z Becoming the recognized leader in usability
z Primary Market
z Avid outdoor enthusiasts
z Secondary Markets
z Casual recreationalists
z Home emergency
z Aid organizations, military
z Assumptions
z Hand-operated
z Borosilicate glass fibers & charcoal filtering technology
z Stakeholders
z User
z Retailer
z Sandy Platter force
z Juan Rodriguez and VCs

6
Customer Needs Process
z Define the Scope
z Mission Statement
z Gather Raw Data
z Observation
z Interviews
z Focus Groups
z Interpret Raw Data
z Need Statements
z Organize the Needs
z Hierarchy
z Establish Importance
z Surveys
z Reflect on the Process
z Continuous Improvement

7
Gather Raw Data

z Focus Groups
z Interviews
z Observation

8
Interviews vs. Focus Groups
100
Percent of Needs Identified

80

60
One-on-One Interviews (1 hour)

Focus Groups (2 hours)

40

20

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.

9
How Many Consumers?
100
Percent of Needs Identified

80

60

40

20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Number of consumers interviewed

From: Griffin, Abbie and John R. Hauser. “The Voice of the Customer”,
Marketing Science. vol. 12, no. 1, Winter 1993.

10
How Many Analysts?
100
Percent of Needs Identified

80

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Number of analysts

From: Griffin, Abbie and John R. Hauser. “The Voice of the Customer”,
Marketing Science. vol. 12, no. 1, Winter 1993.

11
Customer Needs Process
z Define the Scope
z Mission Statement
z Gather Raw Data
z Observation
z Interviews
z Focus Groups
z Interpret Raw Data
z Need Statements
z Organize the Needs
z Hierarchy
z Establish Importance
z Surveys
z Reflect on the Process
z Continuous Improvement

12
Five Guidelines for Writing
Needs Statements
WRONG RIGHT
Guideline Customer Statement Need Statement Need Statement
The WF easily transfers
“Why don't they put a The outlet hose has a
What Not water into a variety of
hook at the end of the hook to connect to water
How different containers
outlet hose? “ containers.

The WF operates
“I often times drop the
Specificity The WF is rugged. normally after repeated
water filter on rocks.”
dropping.

Positive “the WF is difficult to The WF is not difficult to

The WF is easy to hold
Not Negative hold.” hold.

Product “I need to attach a virus A virus filter can be WF accommodates a

Attribute filter to the WF.” attached to the WF virus filter

Avoid
“The water should taste The WF should deliver The WF delivers good
“Must” &
good.” good tasting water tasting water.
“Should

13
Needs Translation Exercise
z The water should not smell badly
z You need one hand to hold the filter, one hand to
pump and one hand to make sure that that the
attachment cap doesn't fall off the bottle
z During a winter trip the pump once froze solid
z I never want to have Giardia again
z I get tired when pumping water for the entire family
z I cleaned the filter after every use, no matter how little
water I pumped

14
 Customer Needs Process
z Define the Scope
z Mission Statement
z Gather Raw Data
z Observation
z Interviews
z Focus Groups
z Interpret Raw Data
z Need Statements
z Organize the Needs
z Hierarchy
z Establish Importance
z Surveys
z Reflect on the Process
z Continuous Improvement

15
Structuring Needs
z Primary Needs (Strategic Needs)
z Secondary Needs (Tactical Needs)
z Tertiary Needs (Operational Needs)

z Must Haves
z Delighters (Latent Needs!)
z Linear Satisfiers
z Neutrals

16
Kano-Diagrams
Degree of Function Implementation

ers
Satisfaction

s fi
S ati
ear
Lin
hte rs
Delig
Dissatisfaction

Hav es
M u s t

17
Structuring Needs
A tendency that

z Customers sort needs more evenly

z Customer ordering reflects actual use
z Group ordering reflects engineering view

z Professional teams only slightly outperform

students

18
Customer Needs Process
z Define the Scope
z Mission Statement
z Gather Raw Data
z Observation
z Interviews
z Focus Groups
z Interpret Raw Data
z Need Statements
z Organize the Needs
z Hierarchy
z Establish Importance
z Surveys
z Reflect on the Process
z Continuous Improvement

19
Importance Surveys
z 5,7,9 – point direct rating
z How important is feature?
z Desirable, neutral, undesirable
z Constant Sum Scale
z Allocating fixed number of points to need levels
z Anchored Scale
z Attach 10 points to most important need
z Up to 10 points to all others
z All seem to perform equally well
z Frequency of mentioning a need is usually NOT a
good measure for the importance of need

20
 Perceptual Map
Water Quality

Sweetwater’s
Sweet Spot ?

First Need
Katadyne

Ease of Use

21
 Normalized Perceptual Map
Water Quality per $

Sweetwater’s
Even Sweeter Spot?

First Need
Katadyne

Ease of Use per $

22
Company Update
z Introduced in August 1993
z 1994, SW shipped ~54,000 units
z 1994 Revenue of $2 million
z MSR (REI-owned!) enters market before SW and
takes 40% of market share
z US Army shows interest
z 1997, SW almost disappears?
z 1998, Cascade Design [CD] acquires SW
z CD had previously (1996) bought Platypus
z 2001, CD buys MSR
z Sweetwater name on MSR products
z Sweetwater is still household name

23
Take Aways
z Capture “What, Not How”
z Meet customers in the use environment
z Collect visual, verbal, and textual data
z Props will stimulate customer responses.
z Interviews are more efficient than focus groups
z Interview all stakeholders and lead users
z Develop an organized list of need statements
z Look for latent needs
z Survey to quantify tradeoffs
z Make a video to communicate results

24
Visual Data Example

25
MIT OpenCourseWare
https://ocw.mit.edu

15.783J / 2.739J Product Design and Development

Spring 2006

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