Abstract Objective The objective of this article is to give the reader:
Insight into the commonly used customer focused innovation methods in Deloitte’s innovation practice Clear examples and practical steps for applying these customer focused innovation methods through case studies Awareness on the challenges when applying these methods and how to overcome certain barriers
Methodology For this article a literature review was conducted to create an overview of customer focused innovation methods. From this overview, six customer focused innovation methods were chosen, based on their use by Deloitte practioners. For the chosen customer focused innovation methods, case studies were created using the same analysis framework for each of the case studies (situation, goal, process, results, examples and reflection). The case studies were created based on interviews with the practioners involved in applying the method. The overall conclusions are based upon analysis by the author. Findings Customer focused innovation methods make sure that customer needs are taken as a starting point in innovation, instead of using assumptions about a customer’s needs to develop new products or services. The findings of this article show that customer focused innovation methods have been successfully applied in client settings within Deloitte. Although application has taken place quite a lot, our clients still need some convincing, mainly to reduce their fears of talking to customers in an earlier phase and in explaining the value versus the effort. Digitalisation of our methods can both increase the efficiency as the effectiveness and digital etnography is a great example of this.
Personal note Clemence Mul is a senior consultant in Innovation Growth Services at Monitor Deloitte. Her background as an industrial designer has made her look critically at the way organisations are investigating customer needs and translating these needs into new products and services. From her experience she believes that many times assumptions regarding customer needs are taken as a starting point and customers are only involved when an idea has been formed. This asks for spending more time on discovering customer needs, yet these qualitative research methods for early stages of innovation can be time consuming and do not fit the high pace needed to bring innovations to the market quickly. Therefore Clemence uses this article to highlight some commonly used customer focused innovation methods and how they can be practically used in every day innovation projects. The goal of this article is to help innovation consultants and managers to make easier decisions of what methods to use, how and when.
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