Friday, July 28, 2006
Innovations – Will They Sell?
Diffusion of innovations is a complex business but Everett M. Rogers, in his seminal work Diffusion of Innovations, identified a number of characteristics that, to great effect, allows one to quickly assess an innovation for its likelihood to successfully diffuse into the marketplace. Here a quick primer on these characteristics.
The characteristics presented by Rogers are all about perception. It is essential to note that it is how the customer perceives these attributes that is important and it is equally important to note that people do not perceive the same thing the same way. Thus, measuring customer perception before during and after development will yield insights into the reasons why people buy or reject innovations.
Here are the five characteristics:
Relative Advantage: If the customer perceives an advantage over the competitors’ offerings, then the product is more likely to diffuse.
Complexity: The more complex the innovation, the less likely a customer is to buy it. In other words, people like things that are easy to use.
Trialability: If the customer can try out the product before they purchase it then they are more likely to buy it. People don’t take salespersons word for it, they want to witness it for themselves – seeing is believing!
Compatibility: People do not like changing their behaviour. They do not like others trying to change their ways. Thus, if your new product is close to the ones that the customer already uses, then they may buy it. If they need to significantly change the way they use the product to do the job they bought it to do, they are not that likely to buy it. The innovation must be consistent with the customers’ values, and their needs and wants.
Observability: If the advantages and benefits of the innovation are clearly visible to the customer then they are more likely to buy it.
These attributes of an innovation are of critical importance to the success of an innovation in the marketplace. Thus, if the characteristics are incorporated into the selection criteria used for deciding which innovations to develop and implement, and which ones are not worth the effort in developing, then you are more likely to have success in the marketplace.
For further information on the diffusion of innovations, visit our Body of Knowledge.
Further Reading:
[1] Rogers E.M., 2003, Diffusion of Innovations, 5ed, Free Press.
[2] Tidd J., Bessant J., Pavitt K., Managing Innovation: Integrating technological, market and organisational change, Wiley.
[3] Goffin K., Mitchell R., Innovation Management: Strategy and implementation using the pentathlon framework, Palgrave Macmillan.
[4] Hart M.A., 2004, How to improve the early sales performance of ‘discontinuous’ innovations-the way Vocera did, Visions [PDMA], Vol. XXVIII No. 2.
The characteristics presented by Rogers are all about perception. It is essential to note that it is how the customer perceives these attributes that is important and it is equally important to note that people do not perceive the same thing the same way. Thus, measuring customer perception before during and after development will yield insights into the reasons why people buy or reject innovations.
Here are the five characteristics:
Relative Advantage: If the customer perceives an advantage over the competitors’ offerings, then the product is more likely to diffuse.
Complexity: The more complex the innovation, the less likely a customer is to buy it. In other words, people like things that are easy to use.
Trialability: If the customer can try out the product before they purchase it then they are more likely to buy it. People don’t take salespersons word for it, they want to witness it for themselves – seeing is believing!
Compatibility: People do not like changing their behaviour. They do not like others trying to change their ways. Thus, if your new product is close to the ones that the customer already uses, then they may buy it. If they need to significantly change the way they use the product to do the job they bought it to do, they are not that likely to buy it. The innovation must be consistent with the customers’ values, and their needs and wants.
Observability: If the advantages and benefits of the innovation are clearly visible to the customer then they are more likely to buy it.
These attributes of an innovation are of critical importance to the success of an innovation in the marketplace. Thus, if the characteristics are incorporated into the selection criteria used for deciding which innovations to develop and implement, and which ones are not worth the effort in developing, then you are more likely to have success in the marketplace.
For further information on the diffusion of innovations, visit our Body of Knowledge.
Further Reading:
[1] Rogers E.M., 2003, Diffusion of Innovations, 5ed, Free Press.
[2] Tidd J., Bessant J., Pavitt K., Managing Innovation: Integrating technological, market and organisational change, Wiley.
[3] Goffin K., Mitchell R., Innovation Management: Strategy and implementation using the pentathlon framework, Palgrave Macmillan.
[4] Hart M.A., 2004, How to improve the early sales performance of ‘discontinuous’ innovations-the way Vocera did, Visions [PDMA], Vol. XXVIII No. 2.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Are Intellectual Property Agreements between Universities and Industrial Parties that Difficult to Arrange?
Many intellectuals, while very skilled in their field of engineering, science or what ever their specialty, often complain about IP issues and the rigidity and complexity that they bring. Maybe it is just that they lack any serious knowledge about intellectual property law, in particular patent law, or is it that the subject is that complex? In the UK in November 2002, The Lambert Review, commissioned by HM Treasury, the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Trade and Industry, were given the task of bridging the gap between scientific researchers in universities and other third level institutions and the business community so that greater levels of cooperation and collaboration between them may occur. This was believed to be important to the growth of the economy and was thus undertaken and rightly so. Part of the review was to develop a set of model contracts and a protocol for intellectual property (IP) to aid and speed-up IP negotiations [1].
Five model Lambert agreements were developed, each specifically designed for different situations depending on who owns the IP and the type of licensing arrangement. These five agreements can now be availed of at:
http://www.innovation.gov.uk/lambertagreements/index.asp?lvl1=2&lvl2=0&lvl3=0&lvl4=0
and are in both Microsoft Word and PDF format and contain detailed guidance notes on their use. They contain that main elements of an IP agreement that are essential for the successful and fair negotiation between the two sets of parties involved.
This information is, in particular, essential reading for anyone interested in getting involved in University-Industry collaborations, for example, through the Innovation Partnership Initiative funded by Enterprise Ireland (see yesterdays Blog entry below).
References
[1] 4 December 2003 – Press release - GOVERNMENT WELCOMES BUSINESS-UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION REVIEW http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2003/press_129_03.cfm
Five model Lambert agreements were developed, each specifically designed for different situations depending on who owns the IP and the type of licensing arrangement. These five agreements can now be availed of at:
http://www.innovation.gov.uk/lambertagreements/index.asp?lvl1=2&lvl2=0&lvl3=0&lvl4=0
and are in both Microsoft Word and PDF format and contain detailed guidance notes on their use. They contain that main elements of an IP agreement that are essential for the successful and fair negotiation between the two sets of parties involved.
This information is, in particular, essential reading for anyone interested in getting involved in University-Industry collaborations, for example, through the Innovation Partnership Initiative funded by Enterprise Ireland (see yesterdays Blog entry below).
References
[1] 4 December 2003 – Press release - GOVERNMENT WELCOMES BUSINESS-UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION REVIEW http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2003/press_129_03.cfm
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Innovation Partnership Initiative - Third Level Institutions Connect and Innovate with Irish Companies
Irelands companies can tap into University skill sets for solving technical problems that they haven’t got the core competences to deal with themselves. The industry–company alliances are part funded by Enterprise Ireland (EI) in a scheme called the Innovation Partnership Initiative. This initiative is used to part fund programmes of research (part funded by the company and the balance is funded by EI), especially in the area of new products or innovative processes, which are of commercial value to the company.
To be eligible for this funding, the company must be an EI client and must be a manufacturing, processing and internationally tradable service companies. The company must also be operating from a base here in the Republic of Ireland. The third level organisation must also be based in the Republic of Ireland.
The Enterprise Research Centre in the University of Limerick collaborates with a number of companies under the Innovation Partnership Initiative and has been successful in problem solving and developing innovative new products and processes for their clients.
Companies who wish to avail of such support in their new product, process or service innovation should contact Dr. Mark Southern of the Enterprise Research Centre or Dr. Seamus Clifford for further information and should also read the current information available on the Enterprise Ireland website.
To be eligible for this funding, the company must be an EI client and must be a manufacturing, processing and internationally tradable service companies. The company must also be operating from a base here in the Republic of Ireland. The third level organisation must also be based in the Republic of Ireland.
The Enterprise Research Centre in the University of Limerick collaborates with a number of companies under the Innovation Partnership Initiative and has been successful in problem solving and developing innovative new products and processes for their clients.
Companies who wish to avail of such support in their new product, process or service innovation should contact Dr. Mark Southern of the Enterprise Research Centre or Dr. Seamus Clifford for further information and should also read the current information available on the Enterprise Ireland website.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Profiling Serial Creativity Killers
Idea generation and the psychological environment
It is broadly accepted in the literature that the psychological environs has a huge effect on the happiness of employees, their ability to generate lots of ideas, many of which may be very fruitful if explored further, accepted and implemented, i.e. diffused into the domain within which the employees operate.
However, the environments within which these people work is fraught with problems when it comes to generating new ideas. However, some environments are ideally tuned to what is needed and the people who operate within them churn out new ideas and concepts that become immediately popular.
We, as human beings, have an inbuilt ability to be very creative. We were born with it. As we tend to live out our lives; playing at home, then going to school, going out to work or going into third level education and then out to work, we become closed in by what we experience from the world around us and in particular, by the other people within it. We are continually told what we cannot do, what we cannot achieve, how to do these things and what to think. We get little chance to apply our inventive thinking to these things by finding and implementing better way of doing them. Our behaviour is always checked, in some cases rightly so, as be must learn to behave ourselves properly. The only problem with this is that our imagination is choked as boundaries are also built up around it.
What drives creativity?
People have insatiable appetites for new things. We want new and updated software, faster and more exciting games, new kitchen appliances that will make life in the kitchen easier, new means of watching TV (VHS, DVD, digital TV, recording programmes on digital TV); we want new things and the more of them and the faster they are, the better. As a result, there is an unrelenting progression, a constant evolution of new things. Advancement is happening all the time. Nothing stands still, or as the great philosopher, Heraclitus, once said “You cannot step into the same river twice” – meaning that the world is in flux, a constant flux of change. The river is never the same river the next time you step into it as water has already flowed by.
We seek new knowledge, challenge, wealth and happiness. We need change, it revitalises the world and gives tomorrow a reason to exist. Although, having said all of that, our mental processes (building reinforced patterns in our minds as we continue to experience the things in our lives) make us ever more set in our ways and eventually we tend to dislike change, especially when it instigated or directed from someone else. We tend to resist change especially when we get older.
The question is, what stops a lot of us from coming up with new ideas that brings about this change, what stifles our own creativity, what is it that prevents us from making it happen? Even more importantly, what makes us stop other people from doing it???
The Killers of Creativity – Their Profile
People tend to be busy at work. They are very concerned with productivity and managing the everyday activities of their work and are often quite preoccupied with themselves and their own personal advancement. New ideas seem to just get in the way of this. Managers become annoyed because: “People who talk all of these new ideas are just distracted from the activities that they should be occupying themselves with; the important things, i.e. keeping the current show on the road”. It is precisely this attitude that stifles creativity at work. As a result ideas are just shut down.
So, what are the characteristics of these people who kill creativity? Well, this is a difficult question to answer as none of these people are of any personality type, in any particular type of career, and can be from ‘any walk of life’. They are just ordinary people with closed minds. However, they can be identified, as people who typically, when approached with new ideas, say something like this without it costing them a thought:
· “We really don’t have time for this – have you scrap figures for the morning shift done yet?” “No.” “Well, why not?”
· “What would you want to do that for?”
· “We have tried it before.”
· “It’s really not what we are looking for.”
· “That’s too unrealistic, we will never be able to achieve that”.
· “Nobody would want that”, or “ What would you want that for”.
· “You do your job, and we will do ours and that how we do things here!”
· “The market is not ready for something like that”.
These statements are almost blurted out automatically by people, as if the idea, if listened to, might infect their minds and distract them as well.
A classic example of “Nobody would want that” or “It’s really not what we are looking for” is the number of publishers who turned down J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book, The Philosophers Stone, which became an international phenomenon in its own right. I bet the ‘rejecters’ of this book were feeling well nauseous after its roaring success.
If people answer you with these dismissive type statements, then you should have a chat with them about learning a bit more about innovation and what drives it, as innovation is based on great ideas and the acceptance of these ideas and their subsequent diffusion out into society through commercialization. If they don’t listen, then get another job and interview your new employers while they interview you. Are they more open minded that your last employer?
It is broadly accepted in the literature that the psychological environs has a huge effect on the happiness of employees, their ability to generate lots of ideas, many of which may be very fruitful if explored further, accepted and implemented, i.e. diffused into the domain within which the employees operate.
However, the environments within which these people work is fraught with problems when it comes to generating new ideas. However, some environments are ideally tuned to what is needed and the people who operate within them churn out new ideas and concepts that become immediately popular.
We, as human beings, have an inbuilt ability to be very creative. We were born with it. As we tend to live out our lives; playing at home, then going to school, going out to work or going into third level education and then out to work, we become closed in by what we experience from the world around us and in particular, by the other people within it. We are continually told what we cannot do, what we cannot achieve, how to do these things and what to think. We get little chance to apply our inventive thinking to these things by finding and implementing better way of doing them. Our behaviour is always checked, in some cases rightly so, as be must learn to behave ourselves properly. The only problem with this is that our imagination is choked as boundaries are also built up around it.
What drives creativity?
People have insatiable appetites for new things. We want new and updated software, faster and more exciting games, new kitchen appliances that will make life in the kitchen easier, new means of watching TV (VHS, DVD, digital TV, recording programmes on digital TV); we want new things and the more of them and the faster they are, the better. As a result, there is an unrelenting progression, a constant evolution of new things. Advancement is happening all the time. Nothing stands still, or as the great philosopher, Heraclitus, once said “You cannot step into the same river twice” – meaning that the world is in flux, a constant flux of change. The river is never the same river the next time you step into it as water has already flowed by.
We seek new knowledge, challenge, wealth and happiness. We need change, it revitalises the world and gives tomorrow a reason to exist. Although, having said all of that, our mental processes (building reinforced patterns in our minds as we continue to experience the things in our lives) make us ever more set in our ways and eventually we tend to dislike change, especially when it instigated or directed from someone else. We tend to resist change especially when we get older.
The question is, what stops a lot of us from coming up with new ideas that brings about this change, what stifles our own creativity, what is it that prevents us from making it happen? Even more importantly, what makes us stop other people from doing it???
The Killers of Creativity – Their Profile
People tend to be busy at work. They are very concerned with productivity and managing the everyday activities of their work and are often quite preoccupied with themselves and their own personal advancement. New ideas seem to just get in the way of this. Managers become annoyed because: “People who talk all of these new ideas are just distracted from the activities that they should be occupying themselves with; the important things, i.e. keeping the current show on the road”. It is precisely this attitude that stifles creativity at work. As a result ideas are just shut down.
So, what are the characteristics of these people who kill creativity? Well, this is a difficult question to answer as none of these people are of any personality type, in any particular type of career, and can be from ‘any walk of life’. They are just ordinary people with closed minds. However, they can be identified, as people who typically, when approached with new ideas, say something like this without it costing them a thought:
· “We really don’t have time for this – have you scrap figures for the morning shift done yet?” “No.” “Well, why not?”
· “What would you want to do that for?”
· “We have tried it before.”
· “It’s really not what we are looking for.”
· “That’s too unrealistic, we will never be able to achieve that”.
· “Nobody would want that”, or “ What would you want that for”.
· “You do your job, and we will do ours and that how we do things here!”
· “The market is not ready for something like that”.
These statements are almost blurted out automatically by people, as if the idea, if listened to, might infect their minds and distract them as well.
A classic example of “Nobody would want that” or “It’s really not what we are looking for” is the number of publishers who turned down J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book, The Philosophers Stone, which became an international phenomenon in its own right. I bet the ‘rejecters’ of this book were feeling well nauseous after its roaring success.
If people answer you with these dismissive type statements, then you should have a chat with them about learning a bit more about innovation and what drives it, as innovation is based on great ideas and the acceptance of these ideas and their subsequent diffusion out into society through commercialization. If they don’t listen, then get another job and interview your new employers while they interview you. Are they more open minded that your last employer?
Monday, July 17, 2006
Innovation is an Art but it is the People that Matter Most
I first came across the book The Art of Innovation, by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman, some time ago and found it a very interesting read. I had been reading all sorts of books on innovation, creativity, idea generation, new product development etc., got my PDMA new product development professional certification (NPDP), worked on some innovative and technically difficult projects, and I was beginning to form ideas in my mind as to the ideal environment and mentality that leads to great innovative activities. This book and the follow-up from Kelley, The Ten Faces of Innovation, reinforced my belief that if you surround yourself with people that have great creative skills, open minds and a bucket full of knowledge about how creativity is nurtured and killed, that you may well be able to achieve great things that are above and beyond the unprepared and unenlightened minds.
Is it the ability to solve problems that works? Is it that we have a great problem solver on our team? Is it that we have a great CEO with an excellent vision? Well, I think the CEO and the rest of the team must be in it together and it is the team as a 'collective force', all of them with the same mentality concerning innovation and creativity, all of them with a hunger for new things and an insatiable appetite for fun. Yet, if the members of the team have the same ideas on innovation, they should have disparate skill sets, technical backgrounds and/or cultural backgrounds, as it is these types of diversity that often leads to very creative ideas. This is more commonly known as innovating at the interface. This interface can be between cultures, disciplines, languages etc. Ideas happen at interfaces. This is also, probably one of the reasons that US industry is so innovative; they have a very disparate society, it is a giant melting pot of cultures and ideas and a willingness to give them a place in 'reality'.
Getting back to Kelley's books, they are loaded with examples of past successes, making clear all of the right things to do and most importantly the things that are very wrong to do. The human element of innovation is ever present these two books and they promote practices that are widely reported as ideal in a bulk of the literature available on the subject.
If managing the human side of innovation is what you find difficult at your place of work, these two books will certainly show you another way of handling people and their ideas that will empower you and revitalise your spirit for innovation. It is when your creative juices start to flow that you can inspire and revitalise others spirit for innovation. Innovation is infectious and everyone in your organisation must catch it. These two books will definitely be a good start.
Recommended Reading
Kelley T., Littman J., 2005, The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate & Driving Creativity Throughout your Organisation, Currency Doubleday.
Kelley T., Littman J., 2001, The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, Profile Books.
Is it the ability to solve problems that works? Is it that we have a great problem solver on our team? Is it that we have a great CEO with an excellent vision? Well, I think the CEO and the rest of the team must be in it together and it is the team as a 'collective force', all of them with the same mentality concerning innovation and creativity, all of them with a hunger for new things and an insatiable appetite for fun. Yet, if the members of the team have the same ideas on innovation, they should have disparate skill sets, technical backgrounds and/or cultural backgrounds, as it is these types of diversity that often leads to very creative ideas. This is more commonly known as innovating at the interface. This interface can be between cultures, disciplines, languages etc. Ideas happen at interfaces. This is also, probably one of the reasons that US industry is so innovative; they have a very disparate society, it is a giant melting pot of cultures and ideas and a willingness to give them a place in 'reality'.
Getting back to Kelley's books, they are loaded with examples of past successes, making clear all of the right things to do and most importantly the things that are very wrong to do. The human element of innovation is ever present these two books and they promote practices that are widely reported as ideal in a bulk of the literature available on the subject.
If managing the human side of innovation is what you find difficult at your place of work, these two books will certainly show you another way of handling people and their ideas that will empower you and revitalise your spirit for innovation. It is when your creative juices start to flow that you can inspire and revitalise others spirit for innovation. Innovation is infectious and everyone in your organisation must catch it. These two books will definitely be a good start.
Recommended Reading
Kelley T., Littman J., 2005, The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate & Driving Creativity Throughout your Organisation, Currency Doubleday.
Kelley T., Littman J., 2001, The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, Profile Books.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
That Will Never Work! – Heard it Before?
I was reading a little piece from a book on creative problem solving when I came upon a little piece relating to a rule created by Charles H. Clark, it was Rule 816, it made me reflect on my working past and my schooling, and it read like this:
“Rule 816: Relating to New Ideas
Rule 816 is now in effect until further notice. When confronted with a new
idea, vote against it.
Rationale: It is probably not a good idea; new ideas seldom
are.
- Even if it is a good idea, the chances are it will never be
tested.- Even if it is a good idea and even though it is tested,
chances are that it won’t work first time.- Even if it is a good idea and even though it is tested, and
even if it succeeds, there’ll be plenty of time for thinking up alibis.Therefore: When confronted with a new idea, the rational action
is to take a positive and forward-looking stand against it.”
I have worked in many places, three industrial employers and several research centres and groups, and I find myself relating to this as I have seen it all before. Some of the research groups that I was so lucky to be a part of, however, were not like this at all, some people within them are perhaps a little like this, but in industry, if I remember rightly, are very much like this. And I guess Charles H. Clark found the same; that’s why he created the rule, rather sarcastically I might add, but it certainly gets the point across. And I guess that J.D. Couger found the same and that is why he included it in his book.
Generating a culture of accepting ideas and then doing the critical thing with them, which is bringing the best ones to fruition. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian psychologist in his excellent work on creativity, stated that
"Today many… spend a great deal of money and time trying to increase
the originality of their employees, hoping thereby to get a competitive edge in
the marketplace. But such programs make no difference unless management also
learns to recognize the valuable ideas among the many novel ones, and then finds
ways of implementing them."
I guess that sums it up, ideas are only ideas, and will always remain only ideas, until you do something with them; you must call yourself to action, and leave the Devil’s Advocate at home!
References
Couger J.D., 1995, Creative Problem Solving and Opportunity Finding, Boyd & Fraser.
This is a useful text and introduces many concepts in creativity… it contains brief descriptions of some useful creativity techniques as well.
Csikszentmihalyi M., 1996, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, Harper Perennial.
A must read for those interested in the origins and meaning of creativity, a classic work.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Documenting your Invention - Tips
Many small companies do not understand much of the patent system and have to talk to consultants to even get the basics of patent law. A major problem with patent law is the lack of documentation that helps guide people through the very basics of what they need before they even consider spending money on expert advice.
Some simple guidelines, though, can help you prepare yourself before you go to a patent agent or attorney.
If you believe you have something new, the most important issue for the inventor or the small company is to focus on recording the prior art associated with your invention and recording what is new and the benefits of your new invention.
This is very important for several reasons. An invention:
How To Examine The Prior Art For An Invention An Introduction
Disclaimer: The methods outlined in this guide, with particular reference to patenting and patent searches, are merely guidelines and do not represent legal advice. Legal counsel should be sought on all intellectual property issues.
Some simple guidelines, though, can help you prepare yourself before you go to a patent agent or attorney.
If you believe you have something new, the most important issue for the inventor or the small company is to focus on recording the prior art associated with your invention and recording what is new and the benefits of your new invention.
This is very important for several reasons. An invention:
- must be novel;
- must be useful, i.e., it must have a purpose; it must do something;
- must be a process, a machine, a new composition or must represent a new use of something old;
- should produce new results that are unexpected;
Thus, the onus is on you to make sure that it has not been done before. To do this, you must make a search of the prior art and document it and you must point out the differences between your invention and all of what came before it and the results gained from these benefits.
Personally, I think that the rest should be left up to patent agents and attorneys. To read more on this subject, read my article:How To Examine The Prior Art For An Invention An Introduction
Disclaimer: The methods outlined in this guide, with particular reference to patenting and patent searches, are merely guidelines and do not represent legal advice. Legal counsel should be sought on all intellectual property issues.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Empathic Customer Visits
Empathic Customer Visits have become the mainstay of Voice of the Customer Research (VOC). They are essential tools that must be used if you are going to be able to get to those evasive tacit needs of the customer. These tacit needs are sometimes so evasive, that many think that a new idea just pops into the heads of those that are lucky to have them. However, as Csikszentmihalyi has made us aware of, creative ideas come to those with a prepared mind, and prepared minds are those that have done the hard work.
New ideas for products and services are best not left to chance as ideas rarely just pop into your head without having the hard work done beforehand. Thus, VOC is the way to go. Now I hear you say "What exactly is VOC?" VOC is (Katz, 2004 - see reference and bibliography list in the paper linked below):
New ideas for products and services are best not left to chance as ideas rarely just pop into your head without having the hard work done beforehand. Thus, VOC is the way to go. Now I hear you say "What exactly is VOC?" VOC is (Katz, 2004 - see reference and bibliography list in the paper linked below):
- a set of customer needs determined by research using interviews;
- in the interviewees original expression or language;
- and organized and prioritized according to the interviewees perspective and not the researchers perspective.
VOC research is executed using a set of tools designed to prepare and carry out interviews with potential customers, preferably those of your competitors to see what it is they need that your products or services do not deliver, and also to analyze the data to extract the valid needs of the user.
A new white paper, which gives a procedure for carrying out Empathic Customer Visits, is now available on my website. It is called:
Empathic Customer Visits – Asking Questions and Observing the Customer in Context
The file is in PDF format. As always, feedback is welcome.
