Customer Needs

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Customer Needs
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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
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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, .
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

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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

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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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Guideline for interviewing
Gathering Customer Needs

• Go with the flow

Wherever the customer takes you, follow along,
and ask why and how questions
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Guideline for interviewing
Gathering Customer Needs

• Have the customer demonstrate

• 
  dont just ask about the
  product, observing the customer in action
  provides helpful information.

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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.
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Comments on Gathering Customers needs
Questionnaires
lowest quality
provide the
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.
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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.
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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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Determining Need Importance Interview Data Method
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Determining Need Importance Questionnaire Method
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Determining Need Importance Questionnaire Method
Nail Clipper
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Homework assignment 3 Due Wed. Sept. 20

• For the individual product selected, interview 5
  potential customers, record the comments
  (original hand written) using Likes/Dislikes
  template.
• Complete the interpreted Need column in the
  template.
• Organize a customer needs list, use the Affinity
  Diagram Method.
• Determine the needs importance, use the
  Questionnaire Method.
• Turn in all your raw data.

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Cluster Analysis Method
In previous methods the importance ranking of
each customer need resulted in a constant weight.
This assumes that the needs have statistically
independent importance.
It may be desirable to obtain a correlation
between needs.

• Construct a preference structure over the values.
  For example, noise generated by a product and
  price (decibels vs. dollar).
• Construct a preference structure not over the
  values of the needs but rather over the different
  product configurations. Show customers different
  prototypes and include customer needs in the
  design.

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Cluster Analysis Method Blender Face
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3
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Cluster Analysis Method Blender Face
5
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10
7
14
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17
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Best 1(23), 5 (39), 12 (39)
Worst 17 (147), 4 (126), 7 (108)
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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.