CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 8

COVER ARTICLE

CUSTOMER
NEEDS AND
DESIRES
Whatever label you apply-design
thinking, solutions-based engineering,
user-focused development, customercentric product development-"it all
starts with empathy," says Bret Waters,
co-founder and Executive Chairman
of software consultancy Tivix, who
teaches a course on design thinking
at Stanford. "You have to put yourself
in the shoes of your customers and
really understand what they're trying to
accomplish." (See the sidebar, "The Birth
of Design Thinking.")
Wise advice-given the fact that most
product innovation either fails entirely
or fails to meet profit targets. "What is
driving companies to rethink the way they
develop products is the billion-dollar cost
of failed innovations," says Madhavan
Ramanjuam, partner at Simon-Kucher
& Partners and co-author of Monetizing
Innovation: How Smart Companies Design
the Product Around the Price. "Smart
companies not only put the customer at
the center of a more iterative process,
they place a greater emphasis on what
the customer needs, values, and is willing
to pay-and then create a product around
[that]. No company-or CTO-can afford
to build its product-development future
on wishes, hopes, and dreams that do not
align with what the customer wants."
Such customer-centric design is a rebrand
of an age-old concept, says Don Hicks,
veteran product-development engineer
and CEO of supply-chain software maker
LLamasoft: "Understand what your
customer wants, not what you are trying
to sell them." People don't necessarily
buy cars because they want a car. "They

08

have transportation needs. They want to
look cool. They want to date supermodels.
There are lots of ways to meet those
needs, and design thinking puts the
emphasis back on solving the customer's
real problem on their terms," says Hicks.
"That can often open up new doors
and windows, or provoke breakthrough
inspiration-because the silos and walls
boxing in your product-development team
have been removed."
It's an increasingly attractive approach.
"Lots of people may not have the language
to ask for it, but they know that what they're
doing isn't working," says Farrah Bostic,
head of strategy for product-strategy firm
The Difference Engine.
Nevertheless, customer-centric design
isn't necessarily easy to implement,
particularly for companies with legacy
product-development processes,
technology, and staff. But with high-level
commitment, careful experimentation,
increased customer involvement, and
a relentless focus on outcomes, this
approach can deliver unexpected and
profitable solutions.

SMALL TEAM,
BIG TENT
In Bret Waters' industry-software-
product development has traditionally
been a closed-off proposition. "It was a
matter of taking existing software and
hardware platforms, combining them
in new ways, and adding some new
features," Waters says. "It was a very
inward-focused process." Many successful
consumer products have been developed
in a similarly insular way. "Companies can
be successful if they put all their smart
guys in a room and have them decide
where to go next," says Mark Jamensky,
executive vice president of products for
Embotics, makers of a vendor-neutral



CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3

Contents
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Cover1
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Cover2
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 1
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Contents
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 3
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 4
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 5
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 6
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 7
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 8
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 9
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 10
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 11
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 12
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 13
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CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Cover4
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https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/cto/issue3
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/cto/issue2
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/cto/issue1
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