The aim of this project is to explore and enhance state of the art techniques for tapping into customer needs in a way that enables innovation of new products and services to unlock hidden customer value.

A range of tools exist for this purpose. The core focus of the project will be on applying and further developing the ‘desired outcomes’ method in a Danish setting as well as the method of plotting personas into multiple use scenarios. The study will, however, also include other market learning techniques. Indeed, the research effort aims to link different techniques in ways that enhance and expand the value of each in order to arrive at a more comprehensive and valuable tool-set for customer value driven innovation.

The desired outcomes method is a structured methodology to map what customers are trying to get in use situations (as well as in purchase, search, disposal and other situations) and to quantitatively verify, which of these outcomes are both important and unsatisfied by current solutions. In this way, it is possible to systematically explore opportunities for innovation. It is also possible to segment customers according to the outcomes they are most keen on and to use the data to make portfolio decisions about where to focus innovation resources.

The market learning method of plotting personas into multiple use-scenarios starts by establishing what types of important customers or users are relevant and interesting to consider. It then proceeds to map out what each of these personas might go through to achieve certain aims. In fact, each persona might go through any variety of use scenarios. In addition, scenarios can be developed for the search phase, the purchase situation, product delivery etc. Hence, this is an inspiring and creative method that enables innovators to ‘put on the shoes of the user’ and walk through multiple situations in order to identify value gaps from the customer’s point of view. In this way, a terrific foundation for developing innovative new products and services is established.

Other methods that the study will employ in the effort to create a comprehensive understanding of customer-oriented innovation for different purposes and in different company or industry contexts include:

§ Mapping customer value drivers through attribution of mapping, the Kano method and trend analysis

§ Ethnographic observation as a means of developing empathy for customers and what drives them

§ Co-creation with customers, i.e. lead user studies that help tap into the creative potential of selected users in B2C situations and collaborative development that is very popular in a B2B setting

§ Prototyping as a means of continuously learning about new markets and adapting critical project assumptions about a new concept and its intended market.

For core companies, participation in the research project means that selected methods are employed together with the company in an effort to enhance the company's innovation efforts and to establish the applicability of specific techniques and combinations of techniques in various contexts. The project will last two or more years and will require a certain level of commitment from the core participating companies.

Other, more peripheral, companies included in the applied research project will not be made the subject of action research, but will benefit from insights developed, and will take part in recurring network meetings aimed at exchanging knowledge about techniques within the group of stakeholders in the project as a whole.