Customer Needs in Market-Driven Product Development: Product Management and R&D Standpoints

Abstract

Meeting customer needs is considered to be vital for new\rproduct success. This study explores customer need identification and related\rchallenges in product management and research and development (R&D) in a market-driven\rcontext, where a large number of customers exist. This paper reviews the\rliterature on customer interaction and needs in a product development context.\rDespite the rich literature, product management and R&D angle have not been\rsufficiently addressed. Thus, customer need identification and challenges from\rproduct management and R&D managers’ perspectives are studied in two new\rproduct development (NPD) projects: one in business-to-business (B2B) and the\rother in business-to-consumer (B2C) market. While differences between B2B and\rB2C markets exist, the results indicate that product management professionals\rmust collaborate with various stakeholders and utilize many information sources\rto obtain and interpret diverging customer needs. Recommended practices for\rcompanies to tackle various customer-need related challenges include systematic\rways of working, small cross-functional teams in product definition, and\ravoiding early handovers between product management and R&D. Besides internal\rcollaboration, product management and R&D professionals should aim for some\rdirect contact with selected external customers to clarify the real and project\rspecific needs, and to build overall understanding about customers.