How about knowing their response before they see it? B2B customers are so knowledgeable that you can model their behavior based on what you learn in customer interviews. Prototypes are still worthwhile—for refinement and engagement. But they’re far too expensive and time-consuming if you do them before conducting insightful B2B customer interviews.
Watch 2-min video, Benchmark Competing Alternatives
In Level 1, you start with your ideas and launch products you think customers will want. In Level 2, you still start with your ideas, but “validate” them with customers. In Level 3, you start with customer needs, using divergent and convergent interviews. You uncover a full range of outcomes and only work on those customers care about.
Watch 2-min video, Immerse Your Team in Customer Outcomes
You can miss an important customer need… pursue the wrong need… over-design and add unneeded costs… measure customer success the wrong way… overlook a competing alternative… over-estimate what customers will pay… under-value your product… use improper messaging. So many chances to err. Fortunately, B2B producers can use a “science” to avoid all of these. And this science delivers a truly outsized return on investment.
Watch 2-min video, How Blueprinting Drives Organic Growth
This can super-charge your organic growth: Don’t let your R&D conduct any product development work without unbiased, unfiltered data on what customers do and do not want. Market Satisfaction Gaps—based on importance and satisfaction scores for customer outcomes—provide this. You’ll free up enormous resources by working on only what matters.
More in white paper, Market Satisfaction Gaps
Your stage-and-gate process is the interface between your company and project teams… doing vital work like preventing mistakes, planning resources, and creating portfolio views. Keep it, but add another interface on top… between the teams and customers. This interface is “customer insights skills.” Together they’re a dynamic duo.
More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs (page 9)
Technology development is science-facing and converts money into knowledge. Product development is market-facing and converts knowledge back into money. Both are critical, but don’t confuse them. And never do any product development until you have quantified, unbiased, unfiltered data on customer needs.
More in white paper, Commercialize technology in six foolproof steps
Key account managers have a HARD job: Members of the customer buying team are… HIDDEN (the person saying “no” may be completely unknown), ABUNDANT (on average, 5.4 people are involved in B2B buying decisions), RELUCTANT (stakeholders believe they’re “too busy to meet with a salesperson”), and DISAGREEING (they have different perspectives on what is needed). To overcome this, try Key Account Blueprinting… New Product Blueprinting applied to one large account at a time.
More in white paper, Key Account Blueprinting
Is your new product pipeline filled with blockbusters destined to amaze customers and drive profitable growth for you? Or is it filled with twaddle… incremental innovation aimed at “guessed” market needs? With AI as your pipe wrench, these 3 steps will unclog your pipeline. Then your best new products will flow freely. In our experience, ... Read More
Decades ago, Stephen Covey explained in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that we need to balance “P” (production) against “PC” (production capability). Today many companies just focus on this year’s results (P), without building the skills and capabilities needed for future growth (PC). Don’t just hit the reset button and start over again every year. Instead, build the future you want.
More in book, Business Builders, Chapter 9.
In the front end of innovation, though, there are just two ways to fail. An error omission is failing to uncover an unarticulated customer need. An error of commission is choosing the wrong customer need to work on. Funny thing about errors of omission: No one knows you erred… until a competitor launches a blockbuster product.
More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs (page 5)
To optimize your efficiency, innovate for the entire market segment. Usually. But some clever Blueprinting users have applied the same interview methods to one large account at a time to reap three benefits: 1) Retention: They work so closely with the key account that this customer doesn’t want to use competing alternatives. 2) Expanded business: Customers naturally want more of their focused help. 3) Pricing: They learn how to modify their products precisely in the ways the customer values most, leading to higher pricing.
More in white paper, Key Account Blueprinting
A new product development process with stages and gates provides helpful discipline. But most suffer from two limitations: 1) Internal focus… talking to ourselves instead of customers. 2) Analytical thinking… promoting a checklist mentality. You also need discovery thinking, with a focus on learning. Unlike analytical thinking, this is fragile and must be nurtured.
More in e-book, Supercharge your Stage-Gate® process
In both cases models are used to predict future behavior. Barometric pressure and other data are the “raw material” for weather models. For you, it’s quantitatively measuring key customer outcomes in the front-end of innovation. Your model lets you replicate the customer experience… so you can know with confidence how they’ll react to any of your product designs.
More in 2-minute growth video #36, Benchmark competing alternatives
For example, do you have a serious discussion about customers’ next best alternatives? What do we know about these alternatives, how do we know this to be true, how do customers measure their satisfaction, and how is our new product design stacking up? Without such insight, you’ll have to guess at your new-product pricing.
More in e-book, Supercharge your Stage-Gate® process