Tu February 2

Customer Needs

Required Reading:

U&E Chapter 4

Muji article: Muji-engagecustomer.pdf

Fun stuff (optional):

Video: Malcolm Gladwell's talk about needs and segmentation 

Crowdsourcing: http://www.wearesmarter.org/

Customer needs for shower heads: naked truth.pdf 

Preparation for class:

1. Class project: generate at least 10 market opportunities consistent with our class Project mission statement.
   • Refer to the reading on opportunity identification for guidelines.
   • You may also find these websites valuable:
     • Why Not website -- lots of product ideas. 
     • Half Bakery - more product ideas 
2. For the purposes of this session just pick one of the opportunities and using the guidelines in Chapter 4, conduct an interview with someone about their "customer needs" as related to the opportunity.
3. Translate some of the subject's comments into statements of need using the process and rules in Chapter 4.

5-minute Quiz in class: 

You will watch a very short video segment (example from 2008) and translate the information into needs according to the process and rules in Chapter 4.

Consumer Needs quiz: needs-quiz-form-27Jan09.pdf

Example solution for quiz: needs-quiz-sample-response-27Jan09.pdf

Assignment Due (completed individually):

1. Go to www.darwinator.com and register for an account using registration code "PDspring2010". Please begin your username with your last name to allow us to identify you for the purpose of credit/grading. Enter in the Darwinator the titles and descriptions of the 10 market opportunities that (1) you are most passionate about, (2) best align with the mission statement of the class, (3) you believe are most likely to result in profitable products at the design fair in April. (sorry about the confusion...if you already did 5 you can upload 5 more next week when you do the ratings with no affect on your grade.)

Slides from class: CB_OPIM415_Class3.pdf