Benchmark yourself against our new product research

This product research comes from our twice-monthly New Product Blueprinting public workshops, which include several poll questions. We’ve compiled the poll results so you can compare how your company performs against others on these questions:

1. Which risk causes most new product failures at your company?
2. What % of your new product projects employ quantitative VOC?
3. What % of your new-product project spending is used for VOC?
4. Who primarily conducts your VOC for new products?
5. How often do your new-product project teams take customer tours?

For each question, we’ll share our thoughts on the “best” answer and direct you to new product research resources to learn more.

1. What causes most new product failures?

Our new product research begins with this: Which failure mode—commercial risk or technical risk—is the most common cause of your new product failures? Commercial failures stem from a poor understanding of market needs, while technical failures mean your R&D was simply unable to accomplish the technical objectives.

Commercial risk played a greater role in new product failures than technical risk. Was this a surprise? Not at all. This has been confirmed by independent new product research since 1971.

Consider how much your company focuses on new product R&D vs. VOC (voice of the customer). You probably spend far more on R&D than VOC, yet improving VOC usually moves the needle more.

TAKEAWAY: You probably spend far more on R&D than VOC, yet improving VOC usually moves the needle more.

LEARN MORE: Check out this 2-minute video: Eliminate Most Commercial Risk.

2. How much quantitative VOC do you conduct?

For decades, new product research has shown that your VOC work should include both qualitative and quantitative interviews. First, qualitative interviews help you diverge to understand all desired customer outcomes. Then quantitative interviews help you converge on customers’ high-priority outcomes. Qualitative interviews help you avoid errors of omission (missing an important outcome) while quantitative interviews let you avoid errors of commission (focusing on the wrong outcomes).

Our own new product research shows the most important of the two types is quantitative VOC: This work—prioritizing customer needs—has the strongest correlation to new product success. (See AIM research report.)

Unfortunately, quantitative VOC is vastly underused at most B2B companies. As our new product research shows, over 80% of respondents use it for less than one-fifth of their new product projects.

Should 100% of your new product projects employ quantitative VOC? Not at all: Many of them are too small. Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you’re likely to spend one person-year of R&D on the project, you should conduct both qualitative and quantitative research. What’s our top recommendation to boost new product success? Don’t let any substantial projects enter the development stage without quantitative VOC.

TAKEAWAY: Don’t let any substantial projects enter the development stage without quantitative VOC.

LEARN MORE: Check out the white paper, Market Satisfaction Gaps, to see the world’s leading B2B quantitative prioritization method.

3. How much do you spend on VOC?

Consider a typical new product project at your company. What percentage of your total project investment was applied to understanding market needs? Our new product research shows this portion is quite low for most companies.

In the past, new product research by others (including Dr. Robert Cooper, et al), suggested 20-40% as a good target for spending on the VOC portion. And we agreed.

But more recently, we’ve become comfortable with a 15-20% level for those employing New Product Blueprinting… for three reasons:

1. Blueprinter software now allows highly efficient team implementation.
2. The rise of virtual VOC (Teams or Zoom) eliminates much wasteful travel.
3. Most important, new Blueprinter AI tools allow fewer human interviews.

TAKEAWAY: Today, if you do it right, your VOC interviews won’t take that much time.

LEARN MORE: See how VOC interviews can be accomplished faster than ever: 90-Day Blueprinting.

4. Who conducts your VOC for new products?

For decades, new product research by others has shown multi-functional new product teams are the most successful. So, to what extent are companies sending teams into the field to conduct this VOC?

These new product research results were disappointing: Nearly half of respondents were relying on their salespeople alone to understand customer needs. While sales professionals should be involved, few have the means and motive to do this well by themselves.

If you’re trying to save on your travel budget, you’re much better off conducting hybrid interviews: Let your sales professional visit the customer in-person while the rest of the team joins the interview virtually (Teams or Zoom). For more on virtual interviews, visit www.virtualvoc.com.

TAKEAWAY: Use a multi-functional team—not just your salespeople—to conduct new product VOC interviews.

LEARN MORE: For more, watch the 2-minute video, B2B Interviewing Fundamentals.

5. How often do you employ customer tours?

Margaret Mead observed, “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do, are entirely different things.” So our new product research explored how much B2B companies used customer observation and tours to supplement their VOC conversations.

Only 16% of respondents routinely use customer tours. That’s a shame: With the right skills, you get better context for your interviews and can observe workarounds that your customer now longer “sees.”

TAKEAWAY: Strong observation skills can significantly boost your insights into customer needs.

LEARN MORE: Learn about the AIM Institute’s AMUSE observation methodology (Accelerate, Minimize, Upgrade, Simplify, Eliminate) in this 2-minute video: Conduct B2B Customer Tours.

Next steps…

Since 2005, we’ve helped many B2B companies implement the very best new product practices. To improve your new product success rates, consider the following options:

• Access our new product research and more at AIM Insights.
• Join us at one of our public virtual workshops to learn more.
• Contact us to start a conversation that will change your growth trajectory.