1. Ch. 3 Research and Idea Generation

2. What’s Coming? Before You Start Needs Analysis/Assessment Interviewing Virtual Value Chain Analysis Web Research Brain Storming

3. Before You Start? Who are my users? Demographics Education Level Culturally Economically

4. Before You Start? (cont.) What do my users need? Facts Tools Entertainment

5. Before You Start? (cont.) What does the presenter need? Selling Showing (information) Collecting (information) Other?

6. Needs Analysis/Assessment Process for determining the real needs of an organization Will not always be what the organization believes it is. Will not always be a need that a web site can fulfill

7. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Scenario… Company “Q” shows drop in sales Competition shows upswing CEO believes it is an IT issue, specifically that company “Q” needs a new website to boost sales. Be sure you can do what you promise!!!

8. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Needs Analysis is… In depth process to fact finding to determine what needs truly are. By identifying the source of the issue, you can decide if a web site can adequately meet those needs and exactly how.

9. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Information Gathering Interviewing One-on-one Interviewing Information Stewards & Presenters Group Interviews Presenters (if many) Organization Staff Potential Users or Model Users Has added advantage of group interaction

10. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Information Gathering (cont.) Interviewing Skills and Techniques Practice makes perfect Question Design Avoid leading questions Remove confusing and ineffective questions Using Broad or Narrow questions Multiple Interviews Structured vs. Loose

11. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Virtual Value Chain Analysis Examining the Organization's Processes Cost Uniqueness Market Niche Step 1: Products and/or Services

12. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Virtual Value Chain Analysis (cont.) Who is the Competition? Where do we stand? Details of recent market Step 2: Competitive Stance Ahead or catching up?

13. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Virtual Value Chain Analysis (cont.) What that we do can be accomplished online? How can the customer be directly involved with the company via the web site? Step 3: Bringing the customer in

14. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Virtual Value Chain Analysis (cont.) Mostly conjecture Develop idea of what can be done… begin to decide if doing it will help How does this realte to the overall Needs Analysis?

15. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Research Market Staff Training Normal needs analysis might contain many types of research Product Developement Web research provides many benefits

16. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Web Research www.google.com www.askjeeves.com Search Engines www.yahoo.com Idea is to see both what can be done and what is being done.

17. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Web Research (cont.) Keyword Search Subject Search 3 Ways URL (least productive) Narrower the better

18. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Web Research (cont.) “active” uses spiders to add new sites “passive” shows sites that have been submitted by managers Active vs. Passive Search Engines Some search engines charge sites to be listed Try many engines until you find the ones that best suite your needs

19. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Web Research (cont.) Use phrases like “and”, “or”, “not” Google’s advanced search is an example Boolean Searches

20. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) The Point of Web Research Colors/fonts What’s working/what’s not Information about possible or actual competitors What features are available What info is available Set up queues Product Info

21. Needs Analysis/Assessment (cont.) Brain Storming Meeting of some or all of concerned parties to generate ideas Moderated open discussion No judgements Suggestions Listed

22. When all the gathering is done Analyze all the data Finishing the NA Yes to a web site? No to a website? Back to Company “Q”

23. Questions?