A Toolkit for Customer Innovation
- Topics:
- Staff Training
- Tags:
- Business Operations,
- Research & Development,
- Product Development,
- Manufacturing,
- Manufacturer,
- Management,
- Leadership,
- Innovation,
- Harvard Knowledgebase,
- Customer,
- ...
- Source:
- Harvard Knowledgebase
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Overview: One should listen carefully to what the customers want and then respond with new products that meet or exceed their needs. That mantra has dominated many a business, and it has undoubtedly led to great products and has even shaped entire industries. Even when customers know precisely what they want, they often cannot transfer that information to manufacturers clearly or completely. Today, as the pace of change in many markets accelerates and as some industries move toward serving "markets of one," the cost of understanding and responding to customers' needs can easily spiral out of control. It has been discovered that some companies have abandoned their efforts to understand exactly what products their customers want and have instead equipped them with tools to design and develop their own products, ranging from minor modifications to major new innovations. The article again says that product development is often difficult because the "need" information (what the customer wants) resides with the customer, and the "solution" information (how to satisfy those needs) lies with the manufacturer. Traditionally, the onus has been on manufacturers to collect the need information through various means, including market research and information gathered from the field. The process can be costly and time-consuming because customer needs are often complex, subtle, and fast changing.
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Format: HTML | Date: May 2002 | Pages: 1
