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

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

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

Shopping Cart Affinity Diagram

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

“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”

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

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”

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.

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”

The customer needs a shopping cart that keeps groceries safe.

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”

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

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

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

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

Objective Tree Mission Statement Main Objective 1 Customer Need 1

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

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

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

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.