Preference Interview Research Report

Preview: Preference Interview Research Report

Because new products are the lifeblood of any company, the topic has been studied for decades. The results are not encouraging. New product failures—measured from the beginning of the development stage—average 75%. One of the most powerful ways to remedy this is with the diligent use of “Preference” quantitative customer interviews.

In New Product Blueprinting methodology, these Preference interviews are typically preceded by a round of Discovery interviews. Discovery interviews are qualitative interviews, designed to avoid errors of omission (overlooking critical customer needs).

Then quantitative Preference customer interviews let the supplier converge to those outcomes worth pursuing. This avoids errors of commission, so the supplier works only on outcomes customers consider both important and currently unsatisfied. Such outcomes have high “Market Satisfaction Gaps” and are the only ones that can lead to new customer value… and premium new-product pricing. This report examines these quantitative customer interviews, while an earlier report covers Discovery Interviews.

The Preference Interview Research Report provides new insights useful for both experienced Blueprinting practitioners and for those seeking to upgrade their approach to B2B customer insight… through quantitative customer interviews. It covers five areas:

1. Description of projects studied: This work is focused on front-end innovation for B2B, not consumer goods. But “B2B” is a broad term, covering many businesses. This section lets you see how closely the projects studied here resemble yours.
2. Description of interviews studied: Preference interviews were developed by The AIM Institute in 2005 and are quite unique; this section explains these quantitative customer interviews.
3. Reaction to Preference interviews: This section examines how pleased customers were with Preference interviews, and how much interest the interviews generated.
4. Insights from Preference interviews: Here the research examined how well suppliers understood customers’ desire for change. It also includes data on customer eagerness for change, direct from these quantitative customer interviews.
5. Overall impact of interviews: Respondents were asked how interviews impacted their project, and the expected impact of these quantitative customer interviews on their own companies. These results were very promising.

Check out these case stories to see how leading global B2B companies are using Preference interviews to turbo-charge their innovation.

For more, see the 2-min video, Quantitative interviews are a must, part of Dan Adams’ series of 50 (free) 2-min videos, B2B Organic Growth.