It’s About the Customer, the Customer, the Customer
Posted: October 28th, 2011 in Addressing Consumer Needs
By Gabriela Mendieta
I just finished attending part of the Kellogg School of Management’s “Managing New Products and Services for a Competitive Edge” Executive Education offering and I was incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to listen and learn from some of the foremost thinkers and experts in the world of innovation, marketing, and customer insights. Some of the topics covered included how to generate and lead an innovation strategy, process, and teams; sourcing for new product introductions; customer insight leadership; and new product marketing strategies, just to name of few.
What impacted me the most over the course of two days was how strong of an emphasis each lecturer placed on understanding one’s customers and in the importance of solving against their needs, wants, and frustrations in order to create successful new products and services. It was probably the most important learning of the entire class, one that I hope that the other participants will take back to their organizations.
To truly create a new product or service that is both successful and differentiated in today’s marketplace, an organization has to get out into the market and really get to know their customers through both qualitative observation and interaction, not only looking at survey results and quantitative studies. Without that knowledge and understanding, an organization will simply create products and services that customers don’t want to buy. Many organizations fall victim to the belief that they know their customers through quantitative research when in reality it can require really walking in the customer’s shoes to understand what they need and what frustrates them in their day to day lives. Ultimately, a fresh understanding of customer needs and frustrations can become the basis for a business opportunity when an organization invests in really understanding their customers. I’ll leave you with this quote, which is from Steve Bennett, former CEO of Intuit:
“Empathy is not just about walking in another’s shoes. First you must remove your own shoes.”