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Users and
Customers
Users and customers should be
involved throughout product development, from supporting the
generation of ideas for future products through to the evaluation
of production ready prototypes.
Capturing
user requirements
The most critical stage for user involvement is during product
definition. It is useful to consider this as a process to focus
attention on who interacts with users, how information is
gathered, interpreted, organised and communicated. This process
includes the following stages:
1)
Establish team
Gaining customer insights is not the sole responsibility of
marketing or sales. Staff from across the business (sales,
engineering, industrial design, production etc) should be
involved in user focused research. Each team representative will
see different things. The engineer may pick up on technical
details, the industrial designer may notice particular ways of
working and the marketer may focus on competitive threats. A
cross-functional focus can help to build teamwork and generate
consensus on the critical product attributes but most importantly
enables insights to be generated from different perspectives.
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Identify stakeholders
A stakeholder is any individual (either internal or external to
the company) who is influenced by or has an influence on the
design, development, production, distribution or use of a
product. It is essential to formally consider who the
stakeholders are in order to priorities user, customer and
stakeholder research. One specific group of stakeholders of
interest is the Lead User. These users tend to face needs that
will be in the market place, months or years in advance of other
users. They are often dissatisfied with existing solutions and
have often tried to modify them to solve their own problems. They
are of special interest because then will be keen to invest time
(and sometimes money) in the search for a solution to their
problems.
3)
Plan data collection
It is useful to plan the data collection before embarking on user
research. Who will be asked, how many meetings, and who will be
involved in them. A simple planning matrix is a useful way of
structuring the process and agreeing before hand on the people to
be involved.
4)
Gather data
There are many ways of gathering data on user needs, wants and
perceptions. These range from highly structured approaches such
as questionnaires and prepared interviews, through to
'ethnographic' methods such as user observation. A brief summary
of some of the more common approaches is provided in the table
below:
| METHOD |
APPROACH |
OUTPUTS |
ISSUES |
| User
interviews |
Structured 1-2 hour
detailed one-on-one interviews |
Good for concept research
and understanding user perceptions |
Time consuming and
interviewer can bias |
| Focus
groups |
2-3 hour facilitated
group discussion |
Exploration of
requirements and reactions - to known products |
Small samples, can be
difficult to relate to new products |
| Concept
testing |
Comparison of responses
to product proposals |
Refining requirements,
assessing potential, ranking preferences |
Possible disclosure of
IPR |
Scenarios
& role playing |
Group sessions to inspire
new ideas through role play |
Potential product ideas
or product changes, good for 'new to world' products |
Relies on a good group
and strong facilitation |
| Lead user |
Interviews or group
discussion |
Potential product ideas |
Possible disclosure of
IPR |
Observation
& user / task analysis |
Direct observation of
product in use in real environments, used by real users |
Exploring requirements,
understanding product weaknesses, provides input to
concept generation |
Should use in real
situations. Encourages team participation |
5)
Structure & interpret data
Having collected data in the form of completed questionnaires,
transcribed interviews, written notes from observations, video
footage, still photos or tape recordings, it is necessary to
translate this raw data into 'customer needs'. It is possible
that a range of methods of data collection have been used to gain
different insights. All useful observations should be recorded as
a single statement and from the raw statement a user need should
be interpreted. Some examples are given below:
| Statement /
Observation |
Interpreted need |
| "The
user couldn't sit properly at the machine" "Growled when she couldn't
find the fixture"
"It is too large
for the room "
"Took a long time
to 'warm up' - frustrating"
|
Machine
to be ergonomically designed Machine allows for easy location of
fixtures
Machine should be
compact - minimise floor space
Machine has an instant
on
|
6)
Organise, rank, communicate & reflect
If the responses from all customers are translated into
'interpreted needs' then there should be a fair degree of overlap
and repetition. Thus, it is useful to compile a single report,
grouping where practical similar responses. An aim is to arrive
at a single report of interpreted needs, where each need is
ranked for perceived importance.
No process is complete unless the
results are communicated amongst the team. It is equally
important to reflect on the success of the process in order to
make improvements for next time - were the right stakeholders
involved, were the right staff involved, did we gather the right
data, did we use appropriate methods, did we plan the process
well?
Further
information
- Barabba V P, Zaltman G,
(1991), Hearing the voice of the market: competitive
advantage through creative use of market information,
Harvard Business School Press, USA
- Cagan J, Vogel C M, (2002),
Creating breakthrough products: innovation from product
planning to product approval, Prentice Hall, USA
- Jordan P W, (2000), Designing
pleasurable products: an introduction to the new human
factors, Taylor & Francis, London
- Hague P, (1992), The
industrial market research handbook 3rd edition, Kogan
Page, UK
- Ulrich & Eppinger,
(2000), Product design and development, McGraw Hill, USA
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