3. Case studies The following chapter provides a six case studies for each of selected customer focused innovation methods. The case studies offer an explanation of the method, followed by a description of the case. Each case study discusses only one method in particular, although in each case it was often a combination of methods to reach the right conclusion regarding latent customer needs.
3.1.
Immersive interviewing
About the method Interviews are face-to-face consultations that can be useful for understanding customer perceptions, opinions, motivation and behavior concerning products, services or to gather information form experts in the field. It is an innovation method that is commonly used, yet there are still ways to learn from a proper interview set-up to truly find latent customer needs. (Delft Design Guide, 2014) At Deloitte the interview technique is called immersive interviews, as these more in-depth and are carried out in the interviewees’ daily work place. This makes sure you understand the context of the customer better and that the interviewee feels more comfortable. The goal of immersive interviews is to dive into the daily life of a customer in order to understand what he or she experiences. The case Situation A material supplier for photovoltaic panels needed to investigate the customer needs in the downstream part of their value chain. The request to Deloitte was to help them in understanding the need of customers that operate and maintain solar PV farms. As this is a new set of customers they were lacking a full customer understanding, but did have a hunch that data that they were generating in testing their materials might be of high value to these customers. Goal of the immersive interviewing The goal of the immersive interviewing was to get a better understanding of the unmet (data) needs of these customers (the project developers, operations and maintenance providers and asset managers). Process Two hour immersive interviews were performed at the customer’s working place. In preparation a topic guide and initial idea of a “day in the life” was prepared by the interviewers. The process followed was: 1. Description of a typical day in the working life by the customer, e.g. “what are the main activities and tools used in these activities?” 2. Mapping the high and lows for these activities (e.g. what causes pain and what is pleasant?) 3. Imaging the dreams for improvements 4. As the interviews were carried out on the working place, the customer also provided insights into the data and tools used (on the computer) and provided a tour of the working place (the solar PV farm). In between different generative sessions the project team shared their learnings with the customers and adjusted the questions for follow-up sessions accordingly.
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