Customer Needs

Understanding and Identifying

Customer Needs
Considering the customers desires is essential in the products
success and it will pull product development into a better and
more focused direction.
Technologists Problem product development
undertaken with no basis for market acceptance, very
common in engineering community.
Akia Morita (1986), founder of Sony Corp., our plan
is to lead the public to new products rather than ask
them what they want. The public does not know what
is possible, we do

Customer Expectations
Customer expectations increase over time, it is very
important to stay in touch with customers and to
understand their preferences. The more customer expects,
the harder it is to keep delighting the customer.
Example, automobile: cup holder, antilock brake system,
CD player, airbags, GPS, .

Customer Population
The customer is a statistical concept.
The design team should define the customer population
using the product.
Example, Bicycle; racing bike, mountain bike,
recreational bike
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Types of Customer Needs

General categories based on how easy the customer can express
them and how rapidly they change.

Example: Digital Camera

Direct Needs

customers have no trouble declaring

those needs they are concerned about.

Cost, good pictures, ease of operation

Latent Needs not directly expressed by the

customer without probing.
Obtaining prints, easy viewing on PC, deleting
pictures, viewing pictures
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Types of Customer Needs

Constant Needs these needs are intrinsic to the
task of the product and always will be. When product
is used, this need is always there.
Nighttime picture taking, number of digital
images, ..

Special needs apply only to a smaller market

segment within the entire population.
Under water application, rapid picture taking

The Process
Collecting raw data from customers
Interpreting the raw data
Grouping the needs into primary, secondary,
needs
Establishing the relative importance of the
needs
Documenting the results for the entire design
team

The Goals of the Process

Ensure that the product is focused on
customer needs
Identify all needs, explicit and hidden
Make sure that no critical need is missed
Creating a comprehensive list of the needs
for the design team
The idea is to create a high-quality information channel
between the customers in the target market and the
developers of the product.
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Gathering Customer Needs

Interviews Discuss the needs with a single customer, one at a
time in the customers environment where the customer uses the
product and feels comfortable

Guideline for interviewing

Select the actual users of the product to interview and introduce
yourself and state the purpose of the interview.

When and why do you use this product?

Walk us through a typical session using the product.
What do you like about the existing product?
What do you dislike about the existing product?
What issues do you consider when buying this product?
What improvements would you make to the product?
What would be a reasonable price tag for the product?
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Gathering Customer Needs

Guideline for interviewing
Go with the flow Wherever the customer takes you,
follow along, and ask why and how questions

Use visual stimuli and props Bring models

of new product, competitors products.

Suppress preconceived notions about the

product technology do not bias the customer with any
concept or technology. Uncovering a need that is
independent from the solution used helps in concept
engineering.
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Gathering Customer Needs

Guideline for interviewing
Have the customer demonstrate dont just ask
about the product, observing the customer in action
provides helpful information.

Be alert for surprises and latent needs pursue any

surprise answer with a question.

Watch for nonverbal information look for facial

and body language.

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Gathering Customers needs

Questionnaires use the same guideline as for
the interview to develop a list of questions.
Prepare the questions carefully. Then organize
the responses provided. Make the list short.
Focus groups a moderator facilitates a session
with a group of customers in the product
developers environment. The design team may
observe the session behind a two-way mirror.
Very common in food industry. Look for facial
and body expressions.
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Comments on Gathering Customers needs

Questionnaires provide the lowest quality of
information. The responses only pertain to the
questions asked, not necessarily what the customer
wants to tell the design team. Low percentage of
returns.
Focus groups are more costly to attain the same
amount of information.
Conducting interviews is the most efficient way of
gathering quality information. Hauser (1993), reports
that interviewing nine customers for one hour each
will obtain over 90% of the customer needs that would
be uncovered when interviewing 60 customers in a
focus group.
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Example: Electric Wok

An electric wok redesign is desired. Current electric woks
are inadequate and do not satisfy the demands of customers
to conveniently cook authentic Chinese food. The original
wok is a six-quart electric wok. A competitive wok is a
traditional wok, used over a gas flame.

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Interview Data Template (Likes/Dislikes)

Electric Wok

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Interview Data Template Elect. Wok

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Interview Data Template Elect. Wok

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Product feel Industrial Design

In addition to the activities of a product, it is also important
to capture the desired feel of a product. Industrial
designers emphasizes the important human qualities of
comfort, safety , and aesthetic appeal.
Semantic Inquiry

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Organizing Customer Needs

The design team reviews the
interpreted needs and sort them
into a list - Affinity Diagram
Method

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Determining Need Importance

There are two basic approaches to determining the relative
importance of the needs.

Interview Data Method (performed by the design team)

The subjective importance ratings (Must, Good, ) are
converted into numerical equivalents. Then the importance is
calculated using the average equation.

Questionnaire Method (based on customer surveys)

A questionnaire is sent to customers asking for the importance of
each need. Costly but more accurate.

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Determining Need Importance

Interview Data Method (performed by the design team)
The subjective importance ratings (Must, Good, Should, and
Nice) are converted into numerical equivalents.
Must (9) used when a customer absolutely must have this
feature, should be used very sparingly.
Good (7) a very important customer need should have a
Good importance rating.
Should (5) If the customer feels the product should
satisfy this requirement, its important for the design team to
consider it.
Nice (3) this is for the needs that would be nice if the product
satisfied them but are not critical (added product functions)
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Comments on Customer Needs Process

The process of identifying and evaluating
customer needs is not an exact science.
The knowledge, intuition and experience of the
design team is important.
The result of the customer needs process is used to
establish product specifications.
The process ensures that the product is focused on
customer needs.
The results should be organized and documented
for the design team to use.

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