IDENTIFYING CLIENT REQUIREMENTS

”The Voice of the Client”

Meeting client requirements requires that those
requirements be understood. The "voice of the client" is a
term to describe the stated and unstated client
requirements or requirements.

The voice of the client can captured in a variety of ways:

direct discussion or interviews, surveys, focus groups,
client specifications, observation, warranty data, field
reports, etc. A Voice of the Client study provides:

1) A detailed understanding of the client’s requirements

2) Key input for the setting of appropriate design

specifications for the new product or service

3) A starting point for product/service innovation.

The Importance of Asking the Right Questions

A designer received a frantic call from a client’s

employee. The employee explained he had accidentally
spilled a cup of coffee on the keyboard of his boss's new
computer. The employee was quite distressed and asked
if he had ruined the keyboard. The designer considered
this for a moment. Then, deciding that a $50 keyboard
could be replaced relatively easily and inexpensively if
necessary, he instructed the empoyee to unplug the
keyboard and rinse it with clear water. The designer told
him to set the keyboard aside to dry thoroughly before
plugging it in once more. Greatly relieved, the employee
thanked the designer and hung up. Within the hour, the
designer’s boss received a follow-up call from an irate
client demanding to know what "%#*$" instructed his
employee to put his brand new $3,000 laptop computer
in the sink and douse it with water.

A range of techniques are used to capture the voice of the

client. The techniques used will depend on the nature of
the client relationship ie. Direct or Indirect:

Direct – local clients

Client meeting
Interviews
Client service feedback
Competitive analysis

Indirect – Business to Business clients

Surveys
Market research
Focus groups

Designers need to be directly involved in understanding

client requirements. This may involve visiting or meeting
with clients, observing clients using or maintaining
products, participating in focus groups or rotating
designers through marketing, sales, or client support
functions. This direct involvement provides a better
understanding of client requirements, the client
environment, and product use.

During client discussions, it is essential to identify the

basic client requirements. Frequently, clients will try to
express their requirements in terms of HOW the need can
be satisfied and not in terms of WHAT the need is. This
limits consideration of development alternatives. Designer
should ask WHY until they truly understand what the real
need is. Challenge, question and clarify requirements until
they make sense. Document situations and circumstances
to illustrate a client need. Address priorities related to each
need. Not all client requirements are equally important. the
objective is to understand how satisfying a particular need
influences the purchase decision.

In addition to obtaining an understanding of client

requirements, it is also important to obtain the client's
perspective on the competition relative to the proposed
product. How do competitive products rank against our
current or proposed product or prototype?

An example of software for obtaining client information.

http://www.ideacore.com/v1/products/webmine/