Linking VoC to Market requirements & Product roadmap July 28, 2010
Posted by Pradeep@Confianzys in Product Development.Tags: feature prioritization, product development, product management, usability, voice of customer
add a comment
At Confianzys, we have been talking for some time now about market centric product planning , a holistic approach that emphasizes the need to look integrate customer knowledge and feedback, competitive market dynamics and technology drivers in the planning process. It is an approach that eschews exclusive focus on any one factor to the detriment of others.
Are we saying then, that customer centricity is over-rated? That, in fact, Voice of Customer (VoC) is not needed on the product roadmap?
Well, like all complex questions, the answer is yes and no.
No, because the customer voice cannot be eliminated from the process. Without adequate knowledge of how customers will evaluate, use and buy, there is full scope for the development to go awry.
Yes, because there are cases where the customer voice can be the death of Innovation. Let’s look at some of these cases.
Talking to the wrong customer. Every customer may have an equal wallet size, but not every customer can participate well in the development process. When the product is at design or prototype stages, it takes a knowledgeable customer (one who is likely to be an early adopter and has a strong need for the product) to be able to offer meaningful feedback. Talking to a poorly informed customer, who is likely to follow the early adopters rather than make his own decisions, can actually give you misleading feedback.
Focusing on the wrong things. Get customers involved to see if the product solves a specific and important benefit for them. Is it easy to use? Is it solving their problems faster/more conveniently? Don’t let customers focus on peripheral issues such as ‘competition has more colours.’ If they do, ignore it. That is a surefire way to fritter away your time on ‘nice to haves’ rather than ‘need to haves’.
Talking to too many customers. Whom is this product really meant for? The teenager looking to be ‘cool’ and show off his latest gadget or the frequent flier who needs to be connected all the time? Get a fix on who the customer for this product is. Feedback from too many different kinds of customers can mean that you keep adding features until the product does no one thing really well.
Not filtering feedback. Sure, all customers want the best product at the lowest possible price. That doesn’t mean you should take the customer voice literally. Pricing, in particular, is one area that cannot be gauged purely from customer feedback. Use a range of measures to aid your decision-making, and try to adopt a value-based pricing approach.
The customer voice is a powerful weapon for companies to use in the product development process, but like every powerful weapon, it has to be wielded with restraint.
World Class Technology Products from India? July 9, 2010
Posted by Pradeep@Confianzys in Innovation, Product Development.Tags: market segmentation, product development, usability
add a comment
If you are anyone who works with product design and development, chances are you that you would find this Dilbert strip not just funny, but familiar.
This cartoon reminded me of the time I was asked to train people on “MS-Windows” in a renowned Public Sector undertaking which was under pressure to reform under the liberalized regime.
So here I was all of 23, asked to become St.Windows or something like that, to go forth and “modernize” the unwashed masses in India’s hinterland, people whose combined experience was higher than all of Microsoft and my company put together. Of course, that didn’t deter me, since I was the chosen missionary to deliver them from misery.
So, cut to chase … when I requested the team to take the mouse and “double-click”, what ensued was one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever witnessed. People were actually physically lifting their mice and taking it to the monitor and doing gymnastics to figure what “clicking” meant. If there was an oxymoronic example of building functional products and design and ensuring that users “use it”, here was one!
Before we in India celebrate that such moronic design is the “forte” of our foreign peers let me tell you that the reason we don’t have such a problem in India is because we don’t “build” products out of India.
Please don’t crucify me for saying that we don’t build products out of India; I must clarify that I meant we do not have a proven winner a.k.a an Apple of the world. There is no shortage of resources for user-friendly and functional product design; yet, it seems as though poorly designed products are no rarity.
Broadly, poor design (and therefore usability) can stem from either (a) a poor understanding of market and customer behaviour, practices and context or (b) the inability to translate sound understanding into implementation (due to constant change in project objectives, under-funding or trying to cater to disparate groups of users with limited resources.)
A basic challenge to market understanding in the Indian market is that in-depth information on particular domains or segments (SMBs for e.g.) is rarely available, or if it is, the information is priced too high for the average small or mid-sized firm. The starting point for Indian firms in many cases is therefore what we could call ‘take a guess.’ Of course, published research is not the only way to understand markets, segments or customers, as we have mentioned before, while discussing market validation for the boot-strapped.
Another challenge is the tremendous amount of user diversity that in the Indian market, making it even harder to understand user segments. For example, the smartphone market in India is booming, but the motivation to purchase could be functional (mid-level corporate executive looking to stay connected and access data) or status-driven (affluent real estate agent who wants a phone from a certain price-band). The first customer would truly appreciate the phone’s functionality, while to the second one, it could be aesthetics that plays a critical role, besides the ease of basic functions such as calling and sms.
The lack of true user understanding also leads to multiple changes in the development process. Sales team feedback suggests an unexplored market, senior managers want ‘extra features’ tacked on – and very soon, the product is a mish-mash that fulfils no one particular segment’s needs well.
This is also a cultural issue – while the spontaneity and ad-hoc nature of work in many Indian workplaces can lead to creativity and unexpected discoveries – it also means that we are poorer when it comes to setting an objective and accomplishing it well and on time. (Which is why Indian IT Service companies function very well – the objectives and timelines are dictated by someone else!)
Great product design will need a completely different approach – one that is user and self-driven (not client driven) and uses technology not in isolation, but in the context of user requirements and behaviour.
