1. Objective Trees and Customer Needs Statements
Design Project Management
Mechanical Engineering
Rochester Institute of Technology
Needs Assessment

2. Goals of Needs Identification
Provide basis for product development decisions
Elicit needs that may not be so obvious
Provide basis for engineering metrics
Ensure critical needs are elicited
Develop a common understanding of the needs
Archiving of needs
Customers and design team come to agreement on scope
From: Ulrich,K.T. and S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, Third Edition, 2004

3. Steps in Identifying Customer Needs
Gather the raw data
(This is in your affinity diagram!)
Interpret the raw data
Organize the needs
Establish relative importance of needs
Sanity Check!
From: Ulrich,K.T. and S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, Third Edition, 2004

4. Shopping Cart Affinity Diagram

5. Examples of Interpreting Data
Stay close to the customer language
What, not how
Specificity equal to the raw data
Positive, not negative
Product Attribute
Avoid “must” & “should”
I think value proposition is just another way of saying that you need to understand what the problems are. This doesn’t sound quite right for the sorts of projects our group is doing.
From: Ulrich,K.T. and S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, Third Edition, 2004

6. “What not how”
Focus on the customer need, not a solution that was provided to you.
“I want a Tesla mast on the cart”
“I want seats not facing my parents”

7. The customer needs a shopping cart that is fun for children.

8. Specificity equal to raw data
Don’t make generalizations based on specific examples provided by the customer.
Don’t read a more specific meaning into a broad statement.
“Easy to recycle”

9. Customer Need:
The customer needs a shopping cart that is easy to recycle. Too specific: The customer needs a shopping cart that is made out of aluminum.

10. Positive not negative
There are lots of things you don’t want your device to do or be. Focus on the smaller set of things you do want the device to do or be.
“Don’t damage food in cart”

11. The customer needs a shopping cart that keeps groceries safe.

12. Product Attribute
Your device interacts with its surroundings, but your work is constrained to the device, not the surroundings.
“Don’t want carts to damage cars”

13. Customer Need:
The customer needs a shopping cart that does not damage cars vs. The customer needs cars that are not damaged by carts

14. Avoid “Must” and “Should”
That implies priority. More on this next week…
“easy to maneuver individually”

15. Customer Need:
The customer needs a shopping cart that is maneuverable. vs. The shopping cart must be maneuverable

16. Organize the Needs: Objective Tree
Use your affinity groups!
Some common themes to look for:
Safety
Cost
Performance
Ease of use
Appearance

17. Objective Tree Mission Statement Main Objective 1 Customer Need 1

18. Shopping Cart (Partial) Objective Tree
The stakeholders need a cost-effective shopping cart that is safe and easy to use
Safe
Safe for the environment
Safe for shoppers
Safe for children
Maneuverable
Individually maneuverable
Maneuverable in chains
Easy to separate

19. Test: Sanity Check Have we solicited input from all customer types?
Have we sought out Latent Needs?
Have we identified any follow-up areas?
What do we know now that we didn’t before?
Have we uncovered any surprises?
From: Ulrich,K.T. and S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, Third Edition, 2004

20. Test: Sanity Check Did the whole team participate in the process?
What should we have done differently in retrospect? How can we improve the needs assessment process for next time?
From: Ulrich,K.T. and S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, Third Edition, 2004

21. In-Class Exercise
Review your team’s Affinity Diagram (which may not be complete)
Select one group of items that is fairly well-developed
Identify an objective associated with these items
Use the information in that affinity group to formulate needs statements
2 teams will present their results to the class and receive feedback.