Uncovering Customer Needs

Introduction

Understanding customer needs is a critical aspect of product innovation. Effective market research plays a crucial role in uncovering these needs and guiding companies to create products that truly resonate with their customers. This article will explore various market research techniques, comparing traditional and newer methods, and highlighting their respective advantages and limitations. It will also explore techniques for uncovering customer needs from the data. By examining approaches such as ethnography, lead-user innovation, and co-creation, I aim to demonstrate how these techniques can effectively uncover hidden customer needs, ultimately leading to more innovative and successful products.

Gathering Market Research data

Market research is the first step in understanding customer needs. To collect research data, innovation teams use both qualitative and quantitative methods such as focus groups, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, ethnography [1-4], storytelling [5, 6], and the repertory grid technique [7]. These methods, commonly used in social science, have been applied to product innovation.

 

More traditional methods of gathering customer feedback, such as focus groups, surveys, and questionnaires, involve asking customers direct questions. However, this approach relies on customers' memory to recall specific experiences and may only provide a general understanding of their needs 4, 8, 9]. These methods typically seek answers to questions about how, what, and where customers are using a product [8]. These traditional methods only scratch the surface of identifying customer needs, which often leads to incremental innovation [9].

 

Newer methods, such as lead-user, co-creation, ethnography, contextual interviews, and the repertory grid technique, have been shown to be more flexible in engaging customers and have been shown to uncover hidden customer needs [10, 11]. These methods involve placing the customer and interviewer within the context of product use, typically the environment where the product is used, creating a lived situation [2]. These newer methods will be discussed in more detail below. The advantages and disadvantages of each method for uncovering customer needs can be found in Table 1.

Lead-User and Co-Creation

Approaches such as lead-user and co-creation involve directly engaging customers as active members of the innovation team, allowing them to provide input on product ideas, features, or concepts [12, 24, 25]. Lead users are individuals who can articulate their future needs, and by involving them, a team can develop products to meet the lead-user’s needs and, ultimately, address broader market needs [12]. Co-creation entails actively engaging customers in the creation of ideas and the development of the product, allowing their input to guide design decisions and development [13-15]. These methods recommend increasing user involvement in the product innovation process over longer periods, which increases the likelihood of uncovering hidden customer needs.

Ethnography

The method that has shown the most benefit for uncovering hidden customer needs is ethnography [10]. In the context of product innovation, ethnography can also be known as consumer ethnography [1-4]. Ethnography aims to discover the underlying feelings and intentions of people who use a product rather than just understanding the job being performed. When studying product use, ethnography captures the "physical and situational surroundings, language, character, culture, and history," which may uncover deeper meaning [1, 16]. The process involves studying the customer in their natural setting and delves into the actual occasions and situations in which products are used and the benefits the product confers [2]. It actively captures who is using the product, what they are doing with it, why they are doing it, the challenges they face and the mitigation actions that are applied.

 

The process of ethnography can be divided into two distinct stages: 1) participant observation and 2) contextual interview [4]. Participant observation involves the researcher observing the customer performing the task of interest to capture specific behaviours [10]. For example, a medical device designer may watch a surgeon performing surgery, or a household appliance innovation team may observe a customer cleaning their house. These sessions are usually filmed for further analysis. By observing how and where the product is used, the researcher can overcome the limitations of simply asking questions [2]. It is particularly useful when a task has multiple complex steps or is highly technical, as the transitions from each sub-task may present opportunities for innovation [17].

 

The contextual interview is conducted after the observation; the interview is semi-structured and guided by the observational data [10]. Though the ethnographer has a general guideline of topics and questions to cover, the interview is conversational. It can move fluidly to explore relevant issues uncovered during observation [4]. The conversational style has an advantage in radical innovation, as little is known about the customer needs, so the researcher may not know which questions to ask prior to the interview [2]. In addition, probing deeper to understand why the actions are performed may assist in finding the underlying cultural meanings and emotions [5, 16, 18]. An advantage of this approach is the ability to compare what the team observed the customer doing with the customer's verbal responses.

 

Bettencourt and Ulwick [17] proposed the 'customer-centred innovation map' to augment the ethnography method. This tool aims to divide the job to be done into discrete tasks. Their premise is that customers hire products to get a job done. A job is defined as the activity undertaken by the user to solve a problem, and the use environment is the context of the job, e.g., to hang a picture, the user could use a solution such as a hammer and a nail to accomplish this task. However, the picture hook may need to be placed into a brick wall, and a hammer and nail may work only on plasterboard, so the user may have to use either a drill, rawl plug and screw solution or an adhesive hook to accomplish the job [19]. By mapping the job from the customer's perspective, areas for innovation can be found by looking at what factors constrain or prohibit the customer from getting their job done effectively. Once created, the map can be analysed to find opportunities for improvements for each task's inputs and outputs by combining, moving, reordering, or removing steps. Finally, by understanding what the customer experiences for each job when using a product, the team can develop newer products that better meet the customer's needs.

 

The repertory grid technique is used to uncover how consumers perceive and evaluate products. It involves interviewing participants and asking them to compare and contrast various product attributes, often using a triadic comparison method (e.g., comparing three products at a time). This process helps identify key product dimensions and personal constructs that customers use to differentiate between products. By analysing these constructs, companies can gain insights into consumer preferences and behaviours, guiding the development of new products that align better with market needs and expectations, thus enhancing product innovation efforts.

Although these methods have their benefits and limitations, authors have recognised that "traditional methods are useful, but they need to be combined with techniques to identify hidden needs" [20]. By using multiple methods to collect data from different viewpoints, innovation teams can mitigate the limitations and enhance their ability to uncover hidden needs.

 

Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of research methods

Traditional Methods

 

 

Newer Methods

 

Market Research Analysis

Once the market research has been gathered using one or many of the tools discussed above, then it needs to be analysed to uncover the customer needs. Various techniques have been suggested for analysing the market research. The following are 10 key indicators, triggers and cues innovation teams should use when reviewing the data:

 

1. Workaround [27, 28]. A workaround is when users overcome a limitation with an existing product to accomplish the job [10, 29]. They use the product in an unexpected way.
2. Affordance [27, 28]. An affordance is the product's properties. Affordances are signs that indicate how the product is used and show how the user interacts with the product. For example, a design affords a surface, shape and texture [28], e.g. a hammer affords a shaft with a rubberised, oval-shaped, coarsely textured handle that signals to the user to grasp the product. Improving the affordance of a product can improve the user’s experience of it.
3. Overgeneralisation [2]. An overgeneralisation is an "absolute descriptor". It is a statement from the user that may contain 'I always…', 'I never...', etc. These cues are areas that need further exploration, as rarely does anyone ‘always’ do something.
4. Metaphorical glosses [2]. A metaphorical gloss is when the customer typically dismisses (glosses over) problems, explaining the issue in a positive light. This may be a certain use they are having difficulty with that could be improved.
5. Claims of idiosyncrasy [2]. A claim of idiosyncrasy is the user stating unique experiences that differ from other users. Why do they think they are unique?
6. Areas of disjuncture [1, 10]. A disjuncture is a variation between the user's responses to interview questions and the user's observed action [1].
7. A dissonance is when an existing solution does not provide a perceived benefit and is expressed as confusion, resignation or contradictions as the customer tries to find a way to decrease the dissonance [30].
8. Trigger of use [31]. Uncovers why the customer is using a particular product; this may involve both conventional and unconventional uses.
9. Context of product use [31]. The interaction with the user's environment may highlight critical design issues regarding how the product is used with other products.
10. User customisation [31]. A user could have made changes to the base product to overcome design problems.
    
    

Analysing the data to find these indicators, cues, and triggers is time-consuming but will aid in uncovering the hidden customer needs. Engaging in market research data analysis and looking for these will increase the ability of the team to uncover the hidden customer needs.

 

Conclusion

Uncovering customer needs through market research is an indispensable process for driving innovation and achieving product success. Traditional methods such as focus groups, surveys, and questionnaires rely on direct questioning often limits the depth of understanding, capturing only surface-level needs and leading to incremental rather than radical innovation. Newer, more immersive methods like ethnography, lead-user co-creation, and contextual interviews have demonstrated improved capability in identifying hidden needs. Ethnography, for instance, allows researchers to observe customers in their natural environments, uncovering the nuanced interactions and unspoken challenges they face.

 

These techniques highlight the importance of context and interaction in understanding the full spectrum of customer experiences. By incorporating these methods, companies can not only identify needs but also discover opportunities for groundbreaking innovations that can significantly enhance user satisfaction and market competitiveness. Ultimately, combining traditional and newer methods in a complementary manner can mitigate the limitations of each approach, providing a robust framework for market research.

 

Effectively analysing market research is crucial for uncovering genuine customer needs and driving innovation. By focusing on key indicators, innovation teams can gain deep insights into user behaviour and preferences. This comprehensive understanding enables the development of products and solutions that truly resonate with customers, ultimately enhancing user satisfaction and market success. Employing these analytical techniques ensures a strategic approach to innovation, fostering continuous improvement and competitive advantage in the market.

 

As the market landscape continues to evolve, adopting a multifaceted approach to understanding customer needs will remain essential for businesses aiming to stay ahead of the curve and deliver products that resonate deeply with their customers.

 

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