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FlyingFox: A business adventure in teams and teamwork
ABSTRACTS
technical-customer discussions. He cites a form of this being done by some Japanese firms, in what they call antenna shops. These are marketplace R&D laboratories, where traditional needs/problems consumer research is conducted but also where new product concepts are displayed and discussed, often with CADKAE systems to immediately convert customer statements into product form, and in some cases, product feasibility and costs (CAM). These are lengthy discussions and negotiations, they are not interviews. The antenna shop can take many forms. He notes one, run by Little Tykes, a large preschool toy firm, in their child care center next to the plant. Rubbermaid is said to be developing an antenna shop that will be a retail laboratory store where proposed new products will be displayed and discussed, along with many other activities on which the customer’s voice is helpful (packaging, displays, advertising, and the like). Both technical and nontechnical people will be on hand to talk with consumers. The essence of the thinking here is that there must be common meetings and lengthy discussions if the firm is really to learn how to think like a customer. There must be presentation of needs, presentation of product concepts to meet those needs, suggestions on how the concepts can be improved and prototyped better, and reactions to the entire gamut of marketing planning on the tools of the marketing mix. The author suggests that TMR be done as a team activity, and that the team should be the early version of the full new product team. The original team studies all previous research and compilations of product characteristics and customer needs. It develops hypotheses on these needs, and from the hypotheses creates new product concepts. As the work proceeds, additional team members are added until the full new product team exists. He has the TMR activity fading out of the process after customers have approved early-stage prototypes. There is no question but that he believes customers must be emersed into the development process, and become highly interactive parts of it. All of the action steps lead to this result and benefits. A Novel Approach to Product Design and Development in a Concurrent Engineering Environment, Shad Dowlatshahi, Technovation (1993, no. 31, pp. 161-176 This author also deals with the vague and grey area early in the development process where marketing,
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87
customer, and technical people must function together to set the directions for a new product that will meet with customer acceptance. He does so in a construct of concurrent engineering, although the methods recommended will work under other systems as well. Critical in the thinking here are two ideas: All activities related to the design of a product should be focused in the early stages of the product development process. All impacts and constraints associated with various functional requirements should be known by the designers early on. This means that systems are needed for getting the full input from the marketplace very early, and that marketing people should put in whatever ideas they have as mandatory implementation guides on how customer needs are to be met. The author feels that marketing should do its work first and rather completely. That information is then given to design which uses it for the next step. The recommended procedure seems to conflict with the setting of concurrent engineering (where work is more simultaneous rather than sequential), but the author assumes that the development of market requirements is not done secretly by marketing. Nor are those market requirements delivered, and left. The process is highly interactive, but design engineers nevertheless are genuinely seeking to learn what makes for design for marketability. The setting in which the author’s method was developed was that of a washing machine manufacturer. The process identifies four key steps. Step 1: Market analysis. This is a typical period of marketing groundwork pertaining to the development and marketing of products. It involves a wide range of activities and techniques from surveys, to demographic analysis, to concept generation, to target selection, and much more. Step 2: Development of central utility factors (CUFs). CUFs are those specific and possibly unique utilities that a consumer derives as a result of using the product. They are mainly benefits, and are central to purchase. They are product objectives and will be key in the marketing launch strategy. Examples are as follows: Simple to start, operate, and terminate; spins up to 95% of the water out of washed clothes; and operates on short
88
.I PROD INNOV MANAG 1994:l I:7648
cycle time. These are critical and are negotiated among the marketing and design participants before they are added to the list. Some of them may suffer trade-offs later, during engineering design, when two or more conflict within known technology. For this reason, the author likes to divide the list into Hard CUFs, non-negotiable, and Soft CUFs that can be negotiated. This is like a Must list and a Want list. l
Step 3: Psychological product positioning. The list of CUFs in effect describes a psychological product, not a physical one, because work to create the physical entity has not yet begun. This psychological product is then positioned relative to products already in the market (CUFs against CUFs), so that the value of the overall proposition can be determined and tested in discussions with target buyers. If that value is inadequate, a feedback loop requires that additional CUFs be
ABSTRACTS
created and tested. The article offers a review of some market research techniques particularly useful in this type of CUF testing-for example, perceptual mapping and analytical hierarchy process-and demonstrates them with data from washing machines. l
Step 4: Physical product positioning. Given the above inputs primarily from marketing, the new product process now turns the reins over to engineering. The task is to design a physical product that delivers the psychological product positioning. For this they should use a system that lists each CUF and the design technology and specifications by which it will be achieved physically. Marketing people have two remaining responsibilities: (1) confirming that the physical product does indeed deliver the mandatory CUFs, and (2) communicating this fact to the target buyers.
technical-customer discussions. He cites a form of this being done by some Japanese firms, in what they call antenna shops. These are marketplace R&D laboratories, where traditional needs/problems consumer research is conducted but also where new product concepts are displayed and discussed, often with CADKAE systems to immediately convert customer statements into product form, and in some cases, product feasibility and costs (CAM). These are lengthy discussions and negotiations, they are not interviews. The antenna shop can take many forms. He notes one, run by Little Tykes, a large preschool toy firm, in their child care center next to the plant. Rubbermaid is said to be developing an antenna shop that will be a retail laboratory store where proposed new products will be displayed and discussed, along with many other activities on which the customer’s voice is helpful (packaging, displays, advertising, and the like). Both technical and nontechnical people will be on hand to talk with consumers. The essence of the thinking here is that there must be common meetings and lengthy discussions if the firm is really to learn how to think like a customer. There must be presentation of needs, presentation of product concepts to meet those needs, suggestions on how the concepts can be improved and prototyped better, and reactions to the entire gamut of marketing planning on the tools of the marketing mix. The author suggests that TMR be done as a team activity, and that the team should be the early version of the full new product team. The original team studies all previous research and compilations of product characteristics and customer needs. It develops hypotheses on these needs, and from the hypotheses creates new product concepts. As the work proceeds, additional team members are added until the full new product team exists. He has the TMR activity fading out of the process after customers have approved early-stage prototypes. There is no question but that he believes customers must be emersed into the development process, and become highly interactive parts of it. All of the action steps lead to this result and benefits. A Novel Approach to Product Design and Development in a Concurrent Engineering Environment, Shad Dowlatshahi, Technovation (1993, no. 31, pp. 161-176 This author also deals with the vague and grey area early in the development process where marketing,
J PROD INNOV MANAG 1994;1I :76-88
87
customer, and technical people must function together to set the directions for a new product that will meet with customer acceptance. He does so in a construct of concurrent engineering, although the methods recommended will work under other systems as well. Critical in the thinking here are two ideas: All activities related to the design of a product should be focused in the early stages of the product development process. All impacts and constraints associated with various functional requirements should be known by the designers early on. This means that systems are needed for getting the full input from the marketplace very early, and that marketing people should put in whatever ideas they have as mandatory implementation guides on how customer needs are to be met. The author feels that marketing should do its work first and rather completely. That information is then given to design which uses it for the next step. The recommended procedure seems to conflict with the setting of concurrent engineering (where work is more simultaneous rather than sequential), but the author assumes that the development of market requirements is not done secretly by marketing. Nor are those market requirements delivered, and left. The process is highly interactive, but design engineers nevertheless are genuinely seeking to learn what makes for design for marketability. The setting in which the author’s method was developed was that of a washing machine manufacturer. The process identifies four key steps. Step 1: Market analysis. This is a typical period of marketing groundwork pertaining to the development and marketing of products. It involves a wide range of activities and techniques from surveys, to demographic analysis, to concept generation, to target selection, and much more. Step 2: Development of central utility factors (CUFs). CUFs are those specific and possibly unique utilities that a consumer derives as a result of using the product. They are mainly benefits, and are central to purchase. They are product objectives and will be key in the marketing launch strategy. Examples are as follows: Simple to start, operate, and terminate; spins up to 95% of the water out of washed clothes; and operates on short
88
.I PROD INNOV MANAG 1994:l I:7648
cycle time. These are critical and are negotiated among the marketing and design participants before they are added to the list. Some of them may suffer trade-offs later, during engineering design, when two or more conflict within known technology. For this reason, the author likes to divide the list into Hard CUFs, non-negotiable, and Soft CUFs that can be negotiated. This is like a Must list and a Want list. l
Step 3: Psychological product positioning. The list of CUFs in effect describes a psychological product, not a physical one, because work to create the physical entity has not yet begun. This psychological product is then positioned relative to products already in the market (CUFs against CUFs), so that the value of the overall proposition can be determined and tested in discussions with target buyers. If that value is inadequate, a feedback loop requires that additional CUFs be
ABSTRACTS
created and tested. The article offers a review of some market research techniques particularly useful in this type of CUF testing-for example, perceptual mapping and analytical hierarchy process-and demonstrates them with data from washing machines. l
Step 4: Physical product positioning. Given the above inputs primarily from marketing, the new product process now turns the reins over to engineering. The task is to design a physical product that delivers the psychological product positioning. For this they should use a system that lists each CUF and the design technology and specifications by which it will be achieved physically. Marketing people have two remaining responsibilities: (1) confirming that the physical product does indeed deliver the mandatory CUFs, and (2) communicating this fact to the target buyers.