Cross “interview guide” off your packing list and add “digital projector.” The former indicates you—not the customer—will be guiding the interview. Not good. Project your notes and let the customer tell you their next problem or ideal state: You’ll learn what you didn’t know you didn’t know, they’ll correct your notes, and they’ll be much more engaged.
More in 2-minute video at 29. Engage your B2B customers
Many suppliers unwittingly detach from customers with a host of risky behaviors: 1) Asking customers to fill in boring questionnaires, 2) using interviews to “validate” their preconceived solutions, 3) failing to probe with insightful questions, and 4) neglecting to follow-up interviews with rich, ongoing engagement. Is it time to learn customer-engagement skills?
More in 2-minute video at 29. Engage your B2B customers
Learn how to determine new product pricing for B2B markets. Plus… 4 added benefits of using a value calculator: 1) Increase customer awareness of value. 2) Build customer confidence. 3) Increase your understanding of customers’ world. 4) Boost customer “internal selling.” ... Read More
Will you win because your R&D people are 20% smarter than the competition’s? If that logic sounds shaky, here’s a suggestion: What if your R&D worked only on problems customers truly cared about… while competitors kept guessing what to work on? Would that be a competitive advantage? This is easier than you think… but maybe you’d rather try to hire geniuses.
More in white paper, www.catchtheinnovationwave.com (page 4)
Most B2B companies don’t have a good system for prioritizing customer needs. At least this is what The AIM Institute found in its recent research. Of 12 voice-of-customer skills measured, this is the skill survey respondents most wanted to improve. Prioritizing customer needs was also identified as the greatest differentiator between successful and unsuccessful new product developers.
More in research report, www.b2bvocskills.com (page 11)
Even if your Stage-Gate® reviews are highly evolved, I’ll bet they’re missing a critical element: I doubt they separate your projects’ Execution Quality and Opportunity Quality. In this issue, we’ll see why this is holding you back. We’ll also look at a brand-new release of Blueprinter® software that remedies this. Imagine you’ve got two project ... Read More
The “old way” of interviewing was to “validate” your idea with customers… but this leads to confirmation bias. With the “new way,” you focus on their needs and gain 5 benefits… 1) add new outcomes to your design, 2) eliminate costs for unimportant outcomes, 3) learn why they want outcomes (for better pricing), 4) engage them more, and 5) move faster. ... Read More
Quality guru Edwards Deming taught us that “94% of problems in business are systems driven and only 6% are people driven.” With the right systems, a company will grow and thrive. And few are more important than the “feedback loop.” Unfortunately, this term has been used so broadly that the original and powerful meaning has ... Read More
We’ve coached hundreds of B2B new product teams and here’s the awkward reality: When teams begin using advanced methods to interview customers, they are usually surprised by what customers want. This means the teams had been planning on developing a product that interested them, not customers. This is a sobering experience. Have you had it yet?
More in 2-minute video at 25. Let your customers surprise you
It’s ironic: B2B customers have the only vote on whether our new product is any good. B2B customers want us to innovate on their behalf. B2B customers are eminently qualified to guide us. Yet many suppliers all but ignore B2B customers when developing their product concepts. Today, this malpractice is global and pervasive in nature. We can do much better.
More in white paper, www.guessingatcustomerneeds.com
Companies like to talk about the voice-of-the-customer, but most just listen to themselves as they create “conference room” products. The team gathers internally to decide for the customer what they’ll want in a new product. This team will always lose to the team that immerses itself in the customer experience, and designs a product to improve that experience.
More in 2-minute video at 22. Immerse your team in customer outcomes
Lean Startup is a powerful methodology, but B2B suppliers need to make some adjustments to avoid serious pitfalls. Instead of using a Build-Measure-Learn cycle, B2B producers should use a Learn-Build-Measure-Learn cycle. In other words, they should begin with B2B-optimized customer interviews. ... Read More
If you develop new products, the design thinking process can help. All the more so if you’re a B2B innovator: You can upgrade the most important parts of design-thinking in ways consumer goods developers can only wish for. Here’s what you must do differently for B2B-optimized design thinking. Imagine a chemical engineering student taking an ... Read More
Turns out that understanding market needs makes a big difference. In recent AIM Institute research, nearly 90% of survey respondents claiming a very poor understanding of market needs had new product success rates below 50%. This percentage dropped to less than 10% those for those claiming a good understanding of market needs. So understanding what customers want before you develop your new product is probably a good idea.
More in research report, www.b2bvocskills.com (page 7)