Re: feedback/features/new loopers...

["Kris Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

Here's an example. I used to work in R&D for HP, and I managed a database
and tool that stored product requirements (features, behaviors, benefits,
priority, etc) for LaserJet printers. I worked with other folks in R&D and
future product marketing. They reviewed and collected requirements from
customers via various data collection methods - focus groups, surveys,
interviews with executives, industry analysts, and power users, etc. Once 
we
completed the requirement collection and validation, I used the tool to
generate various reports for marketing and R&D leads. They used that data 
in
R&D to drive the design of the product. This process helped us develop 
award
winning products. I specifically remember features that were developed
because of direct customer input. If we had left it up to the engineers to
design the product, that would have resulted in a product designed with
features that they thought were important, but which weren't necessarily
important to the target customer. The engineers often had a completely
different view of what features they wanted to build in to the
product...often driven by capability or leveraging their area of specialty,
or something else they were working on.  I'm willing to bet that if you
probed all of the fortune 500 companies, you would find that they had a
similar process for designing products...and they wouldn't consider it a
process of mediocrity, but one of necessity to survive and compete in the
marketplace.

Kris


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kris Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 12:41 PM
Subject: Re: feedback/features/new loopers...


> > Kris,
> >
> > > if I had been the
> > > program manager for the development of the unit, I would have done
what
> any
> > > program manager in marketing would have done with the development of 
>a
> new
> > > product, namely conducted a series of focus groups
> >
> > Ah! Built in mediocrity. I'd much rather see the result of Bob's vision
> > unadulterated, than some marketeer's compromise.
>
> Please validate your claim. Are saying there is a better and more
efficient
> way to design a product that doesn't involve communicating directly with 
>a
> decent sample of potential users, documenting the list of features, and
then
> prioritizing them?  Have you worked in a future product marketing team?
They
> work hand in hand with R&D. One can't function without the other.
>
> > Why do you think the loopers
> > coming from the big-name companies are so lame?
>
> I don't believe I said that, so you'll have to retract your statement.
>
> > Focus groups and market-driven
> > design ... Great Art rarely gets made by committee.
>
> Committee? What do you mean?  And I did not limit the data collection
> process to focus groups alone. Product marketing research uses various
> tools.
>
> > And before you ask, yes I work in advertising ... ;-)
>
> Advertising and product marketing are two entirely different functions in
a
> corporation. Product maketing is designing the product with R&D even
before
> the proto-type phase, when it is still a concept. I've worked with both.
As
> I said, product marketing folks are the voice of the customer need for
R&D.
> I corpration would have to be comprised of idiots, in my opinion, to
design
> a product with no data on customer need.  I don't no of a single
corporation
> who doesn't design products this way. It's the basics of marketing, the
Five
> P's - product, place, promotion, etc...
>
> Kris
>
> >
> >   Ian Petersen
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>