edge™ needs assessment prepared by prof. marcos esterman (ise) copyright © 2005 rochester...

EDGE™

Needs Assessment

prepared by Prof. Marcos Esterman (ISE)

Copyright © 2005 Rochester Institute of TechnologyAll rights reserved.

EDGE™

Goals of Needs Identification

• Provide basis for PD decisions

• Elicit needs that may not be so obvious

• Provide basis for engineering metrics

• Ensure critical needs are elicited

• Develop a common understanding of the needs

• Archiving of needs

Ulrich,K.T. and S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, Third Edition, 2004

EDGE™

Steps in Identifying Customer Needs

• Gather the raw data

• Interpret the raw data

• Organize the needs

• Establish relative importance of needs

• Sanity Check!


EDGE™

Pre-conditions: A Project Exists!

Mission Statement: Screwdriver Project

Product Description A Handheld, power-assisted device for installing threaded fasteners

Key Business Goals Q4 ’06 Product Introduction50% Gross Margin10% Market Share by ‘08

Primary Market Do-it-yourself consumer

Secondary Markets Casual consumerLight-duty professional

Assumptions Hand-heldPower-assistedNickel-Metal-Hydride battery

Stakeholders UserRetailerSales Force

Service CenterProductionLegal Dept.

EDGE™

Methods for Gathering Raw Data• Brainstorming

– Method best suited for your projects• Interviews

– 1-on-1– Dialog Directly w/Company personnel

• Focus Groups– 8-12 People (Typically Paid)– Moderator– Company personnel observe group

• Observing the Product in Use– Direct Observation (Contextual Inquiry)– Virtual Observation

• Use Cases– Task Oriented– Simulate and document the steps to accomplish the task


EDGE™Copyright © 2007 Rochester Institute of TechnologyAll rights reserved.

Affinity Diagram: KJ Method

• Structured brainstorming and analysis– Developed by Prof. Jiro Kawakita (U. Of Kyoto)

• Basic steps– Collect narrative data and compile into cards– Sort and label cards (clustering)– Develop the KJ diagram and present to team

Ishii, K.,“Introduction to Design for Manufacturability (DFM)", ME317A dfM: Product Definition, Stanford University, Lecture 1/7/2004

EDGE™

Hair Dryer Examplefront housingrear housing

m otor& fan

heater rack & coils

therm ostat

frontscreen

rearscreen

switch & wires



KAWAKITA Jiro (KJ) Method

• First come up with anything...

Control

Heat

AirflowGrip

Weight

LongLasting

Reliable

DriesFast

Easyto

Use

Quiet

Easy to Hold

GoodStyle

Colorful

OperatingCost

Fan

Heater

Handle

Casing

Switch

Motor

Safe

Portable



Then Sort and Cluster...

Control

Heat

AirflowGrip

Weight

LongLasting

Reliable

DriesFast

Easyto

Use

Quiet

Easy to HoldGoodStyle

ColorfulOperating

Cost

Fan

Heater

Handle

Casing

Switch

Motor

Functional Ergonomic Esthetic

Product CharacteristicStructural Attribute

Safe

Portable


EDGE™

Choosing Customers

• Sample Size– Ulrich & Eppinger Recommend, 10 < n < 50

• Always gather from end user– Don’t forget other key customers/stakeholders from CVCA

• Know your market space & sample appropriately*

– Level of abstraction of the need

• Nokia 9300?, Nokia Phones?, Cell Phones?, Voice Communication?, Communication?

– Type of User

• Lead?, Satisfied?, Dissatisfied?, Former?, Customers Never Had

*Burchill, G., Concept Engineering: an Investigation of Time vs. Market Orientation in Product Concept development. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. Thesis, 1993.


What is a Lead User?(Eric Von Hippel is a much cited author in this area)

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

-4.00 -3.00 -2.00 -1.00 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 Time

EarlyMajority

LateMajority

EarlyNeed Users

Laggards

LEAD USERSBurchill, G., Brodie, C., Voices into Choices: Acting on the Voice of the Customer. Center for Quality Management, 1997. pg. 54

EDGE™

Lead User Characteristics

• Big need for capability of your product

• Their needs foreshadow the market

• Have extended current product beyond their intended limits

• They often have solutions Conceptualized or Implemented

Burchill, G., Brodie, C., Voices into Choices: Acting on the Voice of the Customer. Center for Quality Management, 1997. pg. 54

EDGE™

Eliciting Customer Needs• Prepare an interview guide• Elicit dialog on a particular task or problem

– Have them walk through a specific instance• Don’t ask them to generalize!• Better yet, have them show you

• Go with the flow• Use visual stimuli and props• Avoid leading questions

– Avoid yes/no questions– Be prepared for latent needs

• Focus on the customer pain– What’s the underlying problem that needs to be solved

• Document, Document, Document• HP Example

EDGE™

Contextual Inquiry

• Needs expressed in action• Observe customer using products in normal

context• Allows the team to better Support, Extend, and

Transform customers’ activities• Important aspect of context

– Location– People– Culture– Values

Clausing, D., Total Quality Development,: A Step-By-Step Guide to World Class Concurrent Engineering, ASME Press, NY 1994, pp. 116- 117


High

Low

Interventionwith User

Far CloseDistance fromUser Environment

field observations

Process Participation

field service calls

Interviews

site interview

phone call to customer

humanperformance

lab

Participant Observation

Levels of Contextual Awareness

Burchill, G., Concept Engineering: an Investigation of Time vs. Market Orientation in Product Concept development. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. Thesis, 1993. Pictorial Representation from K. Ishii.

EDGE™

Sources of Existing Data

• External Sources– Customer Complaints– Technical Specifications– Market Research Reports– Customer Surveys– Customer Profiles– Industry Benchmarking

Studies– Competitor Assessments– Journals

• Internal Sources– Benchmarking Studies– Company Policies– Employees Surveys– Suggestion Systems– Customer Profiles– Internal Publications

Burchill, G., Brodie, C., Voices into Choices: Acting on the Voice of the Customer. Center for Quality Management, 1997. pg. 42

EDGE™

Developing Needs Statements:Guidelines for Interpreting the Data

• Understand the value proposition– Your product is solving some problems

• What are they?• What value do you allow your customer to deliver?

• Stay close to the customer language

• What, not how

• Specificity equal to the raw data

• Positive, not negative

• Product Attribute

• Avoid “must” & “should”


EDGE™

Need Statements Guidelines (pg. 63)


EDGE™

Organize the Needs Hierarchically (pg. 64)

Perfect Application for

Affinity Diagrams


EDGE™

Establish Relative Importance of Needs

• Development Team Consensus

• Customer Surveys

• Characterize the need

EDGE™

Development Team Consensus

Rating Weight

Very Important 9

Important 3

Somewhat Important 1

EDGE™

Customer Surveys

• Only a subset will be practical to prioritize– N ~ 50 is reasonable

• Customer Needs to Focus on– Technical Trade-Offs

• Can eliminate needs that are obviously important– Costly Features

• Can eliminate needs that are easy to implement

• Importance Rating– Mean, Standard Deviation, Number of Responses in

Each Category, etc.


EDGE™

Importance Rating Survey Example (pg. 67)


EDGE™

Characterize the Need: Kano Diagram

• The SD maintains charge for several hours of heavy use

• The SD automatically orients screws

• The SD can turn Phillips, Torx, socket, and hex head screws

Degree to Which Need is Met

Cu

sto

me

r S

ati

sfa

cti

on

Must Have

Linear Satisfier

Delighter


EDGE™

Sanity Check

• All customer types?

• Latent Needs?

• Any follow-up areas?

• What do we know now that we didn’t before? Surprises?

• Did organization participate in process?

• Process improvement.

edge™ needs assessment prepared by prof. marcos esterman (ise) copyright © 2005 rochester...

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