Avoid these 7 mistakes in developing new products: 1) Imagining customer needs. 2) Relying on sales reps to capture customer needs. 3) Counting on just a few VOC experts. 4) Using hand-me-down consumer-goods methods. 5) Gathering only qualitative customer feedback. 6) Listening only to immediate customers. 7) Ignoring competitors when you design your product. ... Read More

Has your business correctly answered 4 questions? 1) Would better customer insight improve our innovation success? 2) Should we take a DIY approach to customer insight (vs. using “hired guns”)? 3) Should we learn improved customer insight from external trainers (vs. training ourselves)? 4) Should gaining this customer insight capability be a top priority (vs. other priorities)? ... Read More

“The less I know, the more I like it.” That’s how a business leader described his experience with big R&D projects to me. What looks wonderful at first often perishes later, sometimes dragging careers with it. During your project reviews, is management hearing, “Trust me, you’ll love this”? There’s a better way, one that puts ... Read More

This cloud-based software provides 10 advantages: 1) enhanced data security, 2) better determination of who to interview, 3) better interview preparation, 4) reduced stress recruiting interviewees, 5) improved customer process map-building capability, 6) stronger interview beginning, 7) better outcome capture, 8) on-screen viewing of trigger map, 9) easier selection of Top Picks, and 10 anywhere-anytime access of project data. ... Read More

In a tough economy, B2B producers can follow these 4 tips: 1) Hear the voice of the customer inexpensively, 2) get everyone listening to the customer’s voice, 3) use other people’s knowledge, and 4) alter their training model. ... Read More

For rapid, profitable, sustainable growth, your goal should be, “Understand and meet customer needs better than anyone else.” These 7 other common paths simply won’t work. Use AIM’s B2B Growth Diagnostic to benchmark your business against average, top quartile, and top decile companies on 25 growth drivers. ... Read More

B2B companies can do 3 things with customer needs: guess, understand or model them. This article explores modeling and its 3 benefits: 1) It’s much cheaper and faster than starting with a prototype, 2) you’ll understand customers’ next-best alternatives better… so you can optimize product pricing, and 3) customers will be much more engaged. ... Read More