For innovation, focus on what customers are trying to accomplish, not what they say they want

Identifying needs for innovation can be challenging, because it can appear that customers don’t know what they want. In many cases the technologies under discussion are so far from current customer knowledge and experience that they have difficulty talking about whether or not they would have a need for the innovation (who knew they needed a microwave oven?). Many companies have been frustrated by developing products that customers seemed interested in during research, but then failed to purchase once the product was launched.

One useful approach to help with understanding needs for technology innovation is that of the “lead user”, developed by Eric von Hippel¹⁵. The idea is to focus your customer research on those users and early adopters who are well ahead of the main market in their understanding and use of the new technologies. The feedback from these lead users can be very important in refining your offering to better meet the needs of the main market.

Another very useful stream of thinking and practice emphasizes focusing the research on what the customer wants to accomplish, not on how he or she might do so. One early proponent of this was the “voice of the customer” approach developed by Abbie Griffin and John Hauser based on the QFD (quality function deployment) methodology¹⁶. More recently, Tony Ulwick’s outcome-driven innovation approach¹⁷ applied by Clayton Christensen to his “jobs to be done” concept¹⁸ have become well recognized in the innovation community.  Similarly, ethnographic research aims to get inside the lives of customers to observe directly what they’re trying to do. Each of these approaches looks at what customers are trying to get done, not what they say they want.

Comments

[Mike Beverly]

There is an interesting model of this concept on YouTube. Do a search on the CAGE Model.

[Michael]

Thanks Mike, I agree, this is a great video well worth watching.