Lecture 4— Capturing the Voice of the Customer

1. Lecture 4—Capturing the Voice of the Customer ECEn 490

2. The BOF is a collection of all the critical information that you know about your project. • Strategy or Solution • Critical Assumptions • Body of Facts - BOFs • Assumptions can make or break a development project ECEn 490

3. Strategy or Solution • Unstable • Strategy!! • Assumptions Changed!! • Body of Facts - BOFs • What happens when Assumptions prove to be invalid? ECEn 490

4. Homework • Read Chapter 4, “Identifying Customer Needs” and/or read the lecture 4 notes. • Team Email assignment; • Develop the “Body of Facts” (all the information that you currently know about your project). • What are the key assumptions that you are making at the beginning of the project? ECEn 490

5. Concept Development Phase • Establish • Target • Specs • Generate • Product • Concepts • Identify • Customer • Needs • Select a • Product • Concept • Refine • Specs • Analyze • competitive • Products • Plan • Remaining • Development • Project • Perform • Economic • Analysis • Phase 1 • Phase 2 • Phase 3 • Phase 4 • Phase 5 • Concept • Development • System-Level • Design • Detail • Design • Testing and • Refinement • Production • Ramp-up • Mission • Statement • Development • Plan • Concept Development ECEn 490

6. What development phase is the most critical to the eventual success or failure of the product? • Why? ECEn 490

7. Market analysis • and Strategy • Technology • development •  • Concept Development • Early phases of Product Development ECEn 490

8. What’s the Problem? • Our • Performance • Customers’ • Need ECEn 490

9. “Marketing is too important to leave to the marketing department”— • Bill Hewlett—one of the founders of Hewlett-Packard Co. ECEn 490

10. Kano's "3 Arrow Diagram" • Physically • Fulfilled • Condition • (Need is met) • Satisfied • Feeling • Neutral • (Need is not met) • Dissatisfied • Feeling • Feeling ECEn 490

11. Kano's "3 Arrow Diagram" • Unstated, • Expected • Quality • Satisfied • Feeling • Physically • Fulfilled • Condition • (Need is not met) • (Need is met) • “Taken for granted” • Dissatisfied • Feeling ECEn 490

12. Kano's "3 Arrow Diagram" • Satisfied • Feeling • Physically • "One-Dimensional" Quality • Fulfilled • Condition • (Need is not met) • (Need is met) • Unstated, • Expected • Quality • Dissatisfied • Feeling • “Competitive” • the more the better • “Taken for granted” ECEn 490

13. Kano's "3 Arrow Diagram" • Satisfied • Feeling • Exciting • Quality • Physically • "One-Dimensional" Quality • Fulfilled • Condition • (Need is not met) • (Need is met) • Unstated, • Expected • Quality • Dissatisfied • Feeling • “Competitive” • the more the better • “Surprise & Delighters” • “Taken for granted” ECEn 490

14. Kano's "3 Arrow Diagram" • Satisfied • Feeling • What was • exciting • yesterday • becomes • expected • tomorrow • Physically • Fulfilled • Condition • (Need is not met) • (Need is met) • Unstated, • Expected • Quality • Dissatisfied • Feeling ECEn 490

15. What difference does it make? • Does it change the effort on customer identification? • Does it change the risk of product acceptance? • What about manufacturing? • How does it impact R&D expenditures? ECEn 490

16. The goals for Identifying Customer Needs Ensure that the product is focused on customer needs. Identify unusual or hidden needs. Provide a ‘body of facts’ for justifying the product specification. Create an archival record of the needs. Ensure that no critical customer need is over-looked. Develop a common understanding of the customer needs by the team. ECEn 490

17. The 6 steps in Identifying Customer Needs Define the scope of the effort Gather raw data from customers. Interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs. Organize the needs into a hierarchy of primary, secondary, and tertiary needs (if required) Establish the relative importance of the needs. Reflect on the results and the process ECEn 490

18. Step1 Defining the scope Often included as the Mission Statement or Project Charter the project charter usually contains a description of the customer and targeted market Key business goals critical customer needs being met key program assumptions major stakeholders • Keeps us from “boiling the ocean”– taking on more than we can accomplish. ECEn 490

19. Mission Statement: Screwdriver Project • Product Description • Benefit Proposition • Key Business Goals • Primary Market • Assumptions • Stakeholders • A handheld, power assisted device for installing threaded fasteners. • Drives screws more quickly, with less effort than by hand • Product introduction 4th Qtr. 2006 • 50% gross margin • 10% share of cordless screwdriver market by 2008 • Do-it-yourself consumer • Light duty professional • Hand held • Power assisted • Nickel-metal-hydride battery technology • Users • Retailer • Sales force • Production • Legal department ECEn 490

20. Step 2 Gather Raw Data from Customers Identify typical customers or users sometimes these can be individuals, other times in groups develop a set of questions that will draw out needed comments decide on using interviews or surveys. Perform the market study capture the customer inputs, written statements, voice, video recording, etc. compile the final written list of customer statements. ECEn 490

21. Customer Needs Interviews • Generate a ‘script’ or list of questions • Open ended versus closed ended questions • examples • when to use which • Let the customer talk - be flexible • Manage your time • Get the whole team involved ECEn 490

22. Step 3 Interpret the Raw Data in Terms of Customer Needs express the need in terms of What the product will do, not How it will do it. Try to keep the interpretation at the same level of detail as the customer input. Use positive statements. Express the need as a product attribute. Avoid the words Must and Want ECEn 490

23. Examples of interpreting customer comments • Customer statement • Interpreted Need • The SD drives screws faster than by hand. • “I sometimes do duct work; use sheet metal screws”. • The SD drives sheet metal screws into metal duct work. • “I like the pistol grip; it feels better in my hand”. • The SD is comfortable to grip. • “I don’t like it when the tip slips off the screw.” • The SD tip remains aligned with screw head without slipping. • “I sometimes drive screws in at an angle” • The SD will show when the screw in not aligned with the surface. ECEn 490

24. Step 4 Organize the Needs into a Hierarchy Write each Interpreted Need statement on a sticky note, and put them on the wall or chart. Eliminate redundant statements. Group the notes according to how similar the needs are to each other. For each group of notes, write a label on a bigger sticky note. Look for higher level groups of similar sub groups. Go back and do a “sanity check” on the data. “how does it feel?” ECEn 490

25. Step 4 Organize the Needs into a Hierarchy Quadrotor must be able to move in any direction at 3 mph. Quadrotor must be able to hover over the target Quadrotor flight characteristics Quadrotor must be able to fly for 10 mins without recharging ECEn 490

26. Step 5 Establish the Relative Importance of the Needs. First try the Team Consensus method Give every team members three sticky dots and have them vote. Or just give each team members three votes. Be careful that all the primary needs are at the same level. If key customers are available, let them help establish importance either by surveys or in focus groups. ECEn 490

27. Step 6 Reflect on the Results and the Process This method is not an exact science. Did we get the important customers in our data? Are there needs that the current customers can’t envision? Do we have some weak areas of analysis? Are we surprised by the results? And why? Did we get the key stakeholders involved? ECEn 490

28. Theme • State the Project Scope or Mission. • Capture customer inputs, one customer • need on each Sticky note. • Group similar needs. • Title the groups. • Lay out groups and show relations • between groups. • Vote on most important needs and • draw conclusion. • Theme • Theme • Theme • Theme • Conclusion • Theme • Steps in customer needs prioritization. ECEn 490

29. Email Team discussion Assignment Go through the process describe in the lecture (and text) with your team. Email me with the following, Description of a customer for your project, The questions you would like to ask this customer, The customer responses that you think the customer would give, and, The interpreted customer needs that you determined. The method of prioritizing the needs that you used. Reading Assignment, Class notes for Lecture 5 ECEn 490

30. Examples of Homework example (page 65 text) • Customer statement • Interpreted Need • Priority • The SD drives screws faster than by hand. • ** • 3 • M • “I sometimes do duct work; use sheet metal screws”. • The SD drives sheet metal screws into metal duct work. • * • 1 • L • “I like the pistol grip; it feels better in my hand”. • The SD is comfortable to grip. • *** • 5 • H • “I don’t like it when the tip slips off the screw.” • The SD tip remains aligned with screw head without slipping. • ** • 3 • M • “I sometimes drive screws in at an angle” • The SD will show when the screw in not aligned with the surface. • * • 1 • L ECEn 490

31. Control Documents • The Functional Specification Document, FSD, answers the question; What does the customer want, or what will they accept? It is mainly a quantitative measure of user needs that allows the team to know when they have met their goals. • The Concept Generation and Selection Document, CGSD answers the question; How will we deliver the solution to the customer’s requirements, and how do we know that we are offering an optimum solution. Again the meat of the CGSD is a set of tables and matrices showing quantitatively how we have arrived at our project definition. • The Project Schedule answers the question; When will we deliver the solution. The Schedule shows the timing of project tasks, the breakdown of staffing requirements, and dates for project reviews and checkpoints. ECEn 490

32. Functional Specifications Document • Most product ideas are initially driven by a loosely defined set of customer inputs that usually are not consistent or complete. • One of the most common mistakes that companies make, is to go into full-scale product development before these customer needs are thoroughly analyzed and the feasibility of the complementary technologies are determined. • In several studies of unsuccessful commercial products, it was found that there was a common theme of poorly defined features in the early stages of the project. • Subsequent project redefinition caused delays and missed expectations to the customer. ECEn 490

33. FSD Requirements • Project Description and background: What is the project, and what is expected to be accomplished. (Mission statement) • Project Requirements: The customer needs and requirements including their relative importance. • Functional Specifications: The measurable engineering characteristics and target values for the product. You should include preliminary targets for marginal values and ideal values for each specification. • Linking of the Project Requirements and Functional Specifications: The analysis of the specifications to insure that critical program and customer requirements are being met. (First step in testing document) ECEn 490

34. Establish • Target • Specs • Generate • Product • Concepts • Identify • Customer • Needs • Select a • Product • Concept • FSD • FSD • Refine • Specs • Schedule • CES • Analyze • competitive • Products • Plan • Remaining • Development • Project • Perform • Economic • Analysis • Control Documents • Preliminary & Final “Functional Specifications Document” - (FSD) • “Concept Evaluation and Selection Document”- (CESD) • “Project Schedule” with Staffing Assignments – (Schedule) • “Final Project Report” • (Most of the control documents are initiated during the 1st phase, and only updated in later phases.) ECEn 490