Gestione del ciclo di vita

Enrico Vezzetti
Product Development Process
Costumer Requirements
 Costumer needs analysis
 It is necessary to interact strongly with the costumer
during the first concept phases in order to understand
clearly what is the market real need.
 A fundamental condition for the product success is its
capacity to provide benefits perceptible by the
costumer
 The costumer needs are completely indipendent by the
technology that could be employed and describe the
desired product attributes or functions
Costumer needs analysis - example
 Costumer needs analysis - the staring point: Mission
Statement - example
The costumer needs analysis starts from the Mission
Statement, that describes the direction that the enterprise
wants to follow, without proving too many details as
output of the planning phase
The Screwdriver Project – Mission Statement
• Product Description: a portable disposal, powered, for
installing fasteners
• Main Business aims: product launch in the fourth
quarter of 2012, 10% of the wireless screwdrivers
market by 2012
• Main Market: Bricolage Costumer
 Costumer needs analysis - the staring point : Mission
Statement - example
• Secondary Market: Small maintenance or installers
• Hypothesis and Constraints: Portable, Powered
• Stakeholders: users, resellers, support services
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information
collection
• In order to understand the costumer needs the product
development team should collect a set of information
from costumer

• In order to collect these information it is possible to

organize interviews, focus groups or to analyze the use
of a similar product or a competitor one

• The first step normally is the interview (at least 10

interviews) for reaching the first information, followed
by a focus group for enrich the first information
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information collection
- example
• In order to have a clear picture of the market it is
necessary to select a wide sample of costumers

• For supporting this selection process it is possible to use

a matrix for verifying to have introduced a sufficient
variety of possible costumers
Different Costumer
Users Resellers Support
Typologies
Services
Home user
5 1 1
Market (occasional use)
Segments Passionate to
(if there are manual labor 10 1 1
different (frequent use)
segments)
Professional (heavy
2 2 1
use)
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information
collection
The majority of costumer have been selected in the
category users, because it was stated in the mission
statement, with more attention to the category
“passionate to manual labor” because they are frequently
users, so know very much the tools, and can provide
interesting suggestions also about competitor products

Even if the product has not been developed it is also

interesting to understand the costumer needs about
similar wireless product as for instance an electric shaver
(what they needs from a wireless tool)
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information
collection
In order to support the costumer needs during the focus
group or the interviews it is useful to employ the following
questions:

• When and why do you use this kind of product ?

• Which is typical example of use of this product ?
• What do you like of the existing products ?
• What don’t you like of the existing products ?
• What do you suggest for improving the product ?
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer statements
analysis and reformulation
Guidelines:
 Describing WHAT the product has to do, not HOW it has
to do (the costumer need should be expressed
independently by the technology employed)
 Describing the costumer need as product attribute: it
allows its successive translation in technical specification

At this stage all the costumer needs are analyzed without

thinking about their technologic feasibility. It will be
analyzed during the technical specification identification
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer statements
analysis and reformulation - Example

Guidelines Costumer Correct need expression Wrong Need

sentence expression
Is it not possible
The battery
to provide
What and not The battery is protected by connections are
shields on the
How accidental short circuits covered by a
battery
plastic shell
connections ?
I would like to
The battery could be A car ligther could
A product charge the
charged with the use of car charge the
attribute battery whit the
lighter connection screwer battery
lighter
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information
collection - example
When and why do you use this kind of product ?
Which is typical example of use of this product ?
Costumer statement
 I need to screw quickly screws, faster that working by
hand; Sometimes I use metal sheets screws; Many
electrical components: plugs, fans,…
Needs
 The Electrical Screwdriver (ES) screws faster than by
hand; The ES works with metal sheets screws; The ES is
employable with electrical components
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information
collection - example
• What do you like of the existing products ?
Costumer statement
 I like the gun handle; I like the magnetic tip
Needs
 The ES has a comfortable handle; The ES tip maintain
the screw before rotating it
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information
collection - example
• What don’t you like of the existing products ?
Costumer statement
 I don’t like when the tip slips away from screw; I cannot
screw screws in the hardwood;
Needs
 The ES tip lines up with the screw head without slipping;
The ES succeeds in screwing screws on hardwood
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer information
collection - example
• What do you suggest for improving the product ?
Costumer statement
 An extension that allow me to reach the bottom of deep
holes
Needs
 The ES reaches screws on the bottom of deep and
narrow holes
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer needs
organization
Once the first two steps have been developed we should
have a list of COSTUMER NEEDS LIST (normally in a number
between 20 – 200 instances)

At this stage it is necessary to organize this list in order to

have a list of primary needs, that are more general, that
could be detailed by a set of secondary needs, that are
more detailed.

This task could be developed by a group of 6 people

maximum
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer
needs organization (1/2)
This task could be developed by a group of 6 people
maximum:

 Writing every costumer needs expression on a card

 Erasing the redundant expressions
 Collecting the different cards in relation with their
similitude (the working group should create card groups
with 3 cards as minimum and 7 cards as maximum. The
cards of the same groups should describe similar
costumer needs)
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer
needs organization (2/2)
 Identifying a short sentence for each group (this
sentence should describe the family of needs collected
 Reviewing the costumers needs expression organization
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer
needs organization - Example
Primary Needs
The scredrivers provide high power for
screwing screws
The scredrivers is able to reach most
of the screws
Secondary Needs
 The scredrivers maintains power for many
hours
 The scredrivers is able to fix the screws in
the hard wood
 The scredrivers is able to work on metal
sheets
 The scredrivers screws faster than
handmade
 The scredrivers could be managed in
narrow spaces
 The scredrivers is able to reach screws on
the bottom of deep holes
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer
Ranking
Once organized the costumer needs in group, it is
necessary to understand which needs are more important
as guideline for the product development.

Involving a costumers group it is possible to use a Likert

scale ( 1 – 5 ) defining

 1 : the costumer need is not important or also

neglegible
 5 : the costumer need is absolutely fundamental for the
right product development
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer
Ranking
The costumers needs classified as 4 – 5 could allow the
product success because they are absolutely important

Those costumer need classified as 2 – 3 are considered

necessary but not sufficient for guaranteeing the product
success

The final score of the general expression of need could be

obtained as the average of the answers obtained by the
different costumers
 Costumer needs analysis: Costumer
Ranking
Primary Needs Secondary Needs Score
 The scredriver maintains power for
5
many hours
 The scredriver is able to fix the screws in
The scredriver 3
the hard wood
provide high power
 The scredriver is able to work on metal
for screwing screws 3
sheets
 The scredriver screws faster than
1
handmade
 The scredriver could be managed in
The scredriver is able 3
narrow spaces
to reach most of the
 The scredriver is able to reach screws on
screws 3
the bottom of deep holes