Voice of the Customer


Book Description

Discover All the Advantages of Using Design for Six Sigma to Develop and Build Customer Value-Based Products Voice of the Customer Capture and Analysis equips Six Sigma you with the skills needed to create and deploy surveys, capture real customers need with ethnographic methods, immediately analyze the results, and coordinate and drive responsive actions. Quality expert Kai Yang explains how to utilize the statistical methods of Design for Six Sigma to identify key customer needs and assess the cost of poor quality. He then shows how to design robust products to meet those needs, optimize product life cycles, and accurately validate their findings. Voice of the Customer Capture and Analysis features a wealth of information on Six Sigma and value creation...customer survey design, administration, and analysis...ethnographic research...process management and Lean Product Development...the deployment of customer value into products-DFSS...and value engineering. This product design tool enables you to: Minimize sources of response and measurement error Discern customer preferences Design VOC research to minimize mistranslation Respond to analytical implications of VOC data Optimize design to decrease sensitivity of CTQs to process parameters With the help of Voice of the Customer Capture and Analysis, you can now acquire the skills needed to truly understand a customer's wants and needs, in order to develop and build optimal products. Most Design for Six Sigma product development teams fall short of truly understanding their customers' want and needs until it is too late. Market research studies and reports simply do not provide sufficient guidance. Today's Six Sigma practitioners need a comprehensive approach to designing and building customer value-based products. Voice of the Customer Capture and Analysis now gives you the ability to create and deploy surveys, capture real voice of the customer in the field, immediately analyze the results, and coordinate and drive responsive actions. This powerful product-development tool demonstrates how to utilize the statistical methods of Design for Six Sigma to identify key customer needs ...assess the cost of poor quality...design robust products to meet those needs...optimize product life cycles...and accurately validate their findings. By using the expert methods, strategies, and guidelines presented in Voice of the Customer Capture and Analysis, you can: Harness VOC data to create value-based products Employ Design for Six Sigma to optimize value creation Become proactive in gathering VOC information Improve customer survey design, administration, and analysis Accurately process VOC data Deploy customer value into products-DFSS Perform effective quality function deployment (QFD) Get the most out of value engineering Capitalize on creative design methods Utilize process management and Lean Product Development Apply statistical techniques and Six Sigma metrics This wide-ranging resource will give you the ability to minimize sources of response and measurement error ...clearly discern customer preferences...design VOC research to minimize the perils of mistranslation...respond to analytical implications of VOC data ...and optimize design to decrease sensitivity of CTQs to process parameters. Comprehensive and authoritative, Voice of the Customer Capture and Analysis provides you with all the tools you need to fully understand customer needs and wants_and then develop and build outstanding products that meet, or exceed, customer expectations.




From Voices to Results - Voice of Customer Questions, Tools and Analysis


Book Description

Make the right decisions about your products and services by listening effectively to the people that matter – your customers Key Features Understand the core components, processes and technologies available for a VOC initiative Structure effective VOC programs and turn VOC into actionable product success A handy guide to help you identify the hidden needs of your customers and strengthen your relationship with them Book Description Voice of Customer (VoC) is one of the most popular forms of market research that combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. This book is about developing a deeper knowledge of your customers and understanding their articulated and unarticulated needs. Doing so requires engaging with customers in a meaningful and substantive way – something that is becoming more and more important with the rise of the increasingly connected world. This book gives you a framework to understand what products and features your customers need, or will need in the future. It provides the tools to conduct a VoC program and suggests how to take the customer input and turn it into successful products. This book also explains how to position and price your products in the market, and demonstrates ROI to the management team to get your product development funded. By the end of this book, you will have a thorough understanding of the relevant stages of a VoC project. It will show you how to devise an effective plan, direct the project to their objectives, and then how to collect the voice of the customer, with examples and templates for interviewing and surveying them. What you will learn Learn why customer input is so critical for the product's success Discover the articulated and unarticulated needs of your customers Deploy an effective VoC program in your organization Learn which tools and methods you need to set up a successful VoC program Interview customers – where, how many, and who Create an interview guide and roles in the interview process Translate the customer input into your product specifications Integrate VoC into your marketing campaigns and pricing process Who this book is for The book is for anyone who needs to get to know their customer, how they feel and what they think about a certain subject. If you are a stakeholder in any project responsible for customer relationships, this book will help you immensely. An awareness of VOC as a topic would be useful, although not essential.




Voice-of-the-Customer Marketing: A Revolutionary 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay


Book Description

Learn how you can use the revolutionary five-step marketing process that helped Microsoft, NBC Universal, and IBM achieve double-digit increases in sales. "When HP uses the Voice of the Customer methodology, our marketing campaign results improve dramatically: response rates improve 3X to 10x, sales increase 2x or more, and we can spend far less to get great results. When we don’t use VOC, our results can suffer greatly." -Garry Dawson, Hewlett-Packard, Americas Advertising and Direct Marketing Manager "Ernan is a leading expert in creating disciplined “Voice of Customer” driven marketing processes. If you want to move from just talking about VOC to being a leader in implementing it, you must read this book." -Fred Neil, Global Head of CRM, Dell "The clearest and best book yet published on the subject of Voice of the Customer marketing principles. In this hands-on tutorial, Ernan takes you through the steps that can transform your business, putting your customers at the center of defining what is relevant and what will drive deeper engagement." -Bernd Schmitt, Professor, Columbia Business School, Author of Customer Experience Management and Big Think Strategy In Voice of the Customer Marketing, Ernan Roman, the award-winning marketing guru who created the IDM (Integrated Direct Marketing) and Opt-in marketing methodologies shows you a proven, step-by-step process for understanding the expectations of your customers and prospects for more effective relationships and deeper levels of value. He then demonstrates how to use these insights to develop high impact, high return relationship marketing strategies and action plans which generate consistent double-digit increases in response and sales. The book's numerous case studies demonstrate the most effective uses of Voice of the Customer marketing in action, and the most frequent mistakes marketers make-trying to "manage" customers rather than continually engaging them. This book is essential reading for all marketers, whether in Fortune or Growth sized companies, who want dramatic increases in sales and marketing effectiveness.




New Product Blueprinting


Book Description




Customer-centric Product Definition


Book Description

Despite the prodigious research and money devoted to new product development, nearly nine in ten new products fail to solve a perceived need--and are gone within their first two years. This unique new book introduces and explains Market-Driven Product Definition (MDPD), a proven methodology for identifying and understanding customer-value-based needs, then turning them into products that consistently break through the clutter of the marketplace. Drawing on techniques developed by experts from MIT, the University of Chicago, and the Center for Management of Quality, as well as product development experiences from inside hundreds of top companies, including Abbott, Compaq, and Cisco, the book reveals MDPD techniques managers can use to: * Determine customer needs and value-based requirements * Choose which requirements to satisfy in order to distinguish their products from the competition * Determine which trade-offs can--and must--be made in product development * Decrease time to market by up to 40 percent and minimize time to profit.




Voices Into Choices


Book Description




What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services


Book Description

A world-renowned innovation guru explains practices that result in breakthrough innovations "Ulwick's outcome-driven programs bring discipline and predictability to the often random process of innovation." -Clayton Christensen For years, companies have accepted the underlying principles that define the customer-driven paradigm--that is, using customer "requirements" to guide growth and innovation. But twenty years into this movement, breakthrough innovations are still rare, and most companies find that 50 to 90 percent of their innovation initiatives flop. The cost of these failures to U.S. companies alone is estimated to be well over $100 billion annually. In a book that challenges everything you have learned about being customer driven, internationally acclaimed innovation leader Anthony Ulwick reveals the secret weapon behind some of the most successful companies of recent years. Known as "outcome-driven" innovation, this revolutionary approach to new product and service creation transforms innovation from a nebulous art into a rigorous science from which randomness and uncertainty are eliminated. Based on more than 200 studies spanning more than seventy companies and twenty-five industries, Ulwick contends that, when it comes to innovation, the traditional methods companies use to communicate with customers are the root cause of chronic waste and missed opportunity. In What Customers Want, Ulwick demonstrates that all popular qualitative research methods yield well-intentioned but unfitting and dreadfully misleading information that serves to derail the innovation process. Rather than accepting customer inputs such as "needs," "benefits," "specifications," and "solutions," Ulwick argues that researchers should silence the literal "voice of the customer" and focus on the "metrics that customers use to measure success when executing the jobs, tasks or activities they are trying to get done." Using these customer desired outcomes as inputs into the innovation process eliminates much of the chaos and variability that typically derails innovation initiatives. With the same profound insight, simplicity, and uncommon sense that propelled The Innovator's Solution to worldwide acclaim, this paradigm-changing book details an eight-step approach that uses outcome-driven thinking to dramatically improve every aspect of the innovation process--from segmenting markets and identifying opportunities to creating, evaluating, and positioning breakthrough concepts. Using case studies from Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, AIG, Pfizer, and other leading companies, What Customers Want shows companies how to: Obtain unique customer inputs that make predictable innovation possible Recognize opportunities for disruption, new market creation, and core market growth--well before competitors do Identify which ideas, technologies, and acquisitions have the greatest potential for creating customer value Systematically define breakthrough products and services concepts Innovation is fundamental to success and business growth. Offering a proven alternative to failed customer-driven thinking, this landmark book arms you with the tools to unleash innovation, lower costs, and reduce failure rates--and create the products and services customers really want.




Lean Product and Process Development, 2nd Edition


Book Description

"The P-51 Mustang—perhaps the finest piston engine fighter ever built—was designed and put into flight in just a few months. Specifications were finalized on March 15, 1940; the airfoil prototype was complete on September 9; and the aircraft made its maiden flight on October 26. Now that is a lean development process!" —Allen Ward and Durward Sobek, commenting on the development of the P-51 Mustang and its exemplary use of trade-off curves. Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award recipient, 2008 Despite attempts to interpret and apply lean product development techniques, companies still struggle with design quality problems, long lead times, and high development costs. To be successful, lean product development must go beyond techniques, technologies, conventional concurrent engineering methods, standardized engineering work, and heavyweight project managers. Allen Ward showed the way. In a truly groundbreaking first edition of Lean Product and Process Development, Ward delivered -- with passion and penetrating insights that cannot be found elsewhere -- a comprehensive view of lean principles for developing and sustaining product and process development. In the second edition, Durward Sobek, professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Montana State University—and one of Ward’s premier students—edits and reorganizes the original text to make it more accessible and actionable. This new edition builds on the first one by: Adding five in-depth and inspiring case studies. Including insightful new examples and illustrations. Updating concepts and tools based on recent developments in product development. Expanding the discussion around the critical concept of set-based concurrent engineering. Adding a more detailed table of contents and an index to make the book more accessible and user-friendly. The True Purpose of Product Development Ward’s core thesis is that the very aim of the product development process is to create profitable operational value streams, and that the key to doing so predictably, efficiently, and effectively is to create useable knowledge. Creating useable knowledge requires learning, so Ward also creates a basic learning model for development. But Ward not only describes the technical tools needed to make lean product and process development actually work. He also delineates the management system, management behaviors, and mental models needed. In this breakthrough text, Ward: Asks fundamental questions about the purpose and “value added” in product development so you gain a crystal clear understanding of essential issues. Shows you how to find the most common forms of “knowledge waste” that plagues product development. Identifies four “cornerstones” of lean product development gleaned from the practices of successful companies like Toyota and its partners, and explains how they differ from conventional practices. Gives you specific, practical recommendations for establishing your own lean development processes. Melds observations of effective teamwork from his military background, engineering fundamentals from his education and personal experience, design methodology from his research, and theories about management and learning from his study of history and experiences with customers. Changes your thinking forever about product development.




New Product Development For Dummies


Book Description

The global consumer product market is exploding. In 2006 alone, 150,000 new products were brought to market. Now for the bad news: of those, fewer than 5% were hits, and fewer than 15% will even exist five years from now. Written for small business owners and entrepreneurs looking for an inside track on new product development, New Product Development for Dummies offers you a unique opportunity to learn from two consummate insiders the secrets of successfully developing, marketing and making a bundle from a new product or service. You learn proven techniques for sizing up market potential and divining customer needs. You get tested-in-the-trenches strategies for launching a new product or service. And you get a frank, in-depth appraisal of the most challenging issues facing new product developers today, including the need to collaborate with global partners, optimizing technology development for a 21st century marketplace, getting start-up capital in an increasingly competitive environment, and much more. Key topics covered include: Developing a winning NPD strategy Generating bold new ideas for products and services Understanding what your customers really want Keeping projects on track, on budget, and on-time Building effective cross-functional teams Planning and executing a blockbuster launch Collaborating with global partners Maximizing your chances for success No matter what size or type of business you’re in, this book provides you with an unbeatable competitive advantage in the booming global marketplace for new products and services.




House of Quality


Book Description