TEI 004: Use “What does that mean to you?” and Other Practices for Understanding What Customers Want – with Louise Musial
Summary: Louise Musial, VP of Business Strategy at <a href="http://pcdworks.com/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="external" rel="follow external noopener noreferrer">PCD Works</a>, is an author of numerous articles for technical magazines and lecturer on the topics of Innovation, Open Innovation, and business trends in R&D. We met at the Product Innovation Management conference, where she participated in the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification preparation workshop I conducted.<br> At the conference she presented “Working with Small Companies to Expand Your Open Innovation Capabilities” which she also wrote about in the book “Open Innovation: New Product Development Essentials from PDMA.”<br> Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators<br> Highlights from the discussion include:<br> <br> * Shocking, but tech startups in Silicon Valley don’t find human-waste-eating microbes sexy<br> * A natural curiosity about how things work and figuring things out as a child contributed to Louise’s interest in innovation<br> * An example of a partnership with a University research group that led to commercializing a product that makes clean water from waste water.<br> * The need for innovation in water – availability of clean water and reclamation of waste water<br> * Distraction-free innovation with the right people involved creates focus, which is the aim of Louise’s innovation campus on <a href="http://pcdworks.com/about-pcdworks/the-innovation-campus" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="external" rel="follow external noopener noreferrer">80 acres in the country</a><br> <br> <br> <br> * How the problem is framed impacts the solution<br> * Putting aside assumptions can create paths that lead to innovations<br> * Story telling is a useful tool for product innovators – filter what is unnecessary and keep the message simple but compelling<br> * Carefully observing customers is an important aspect of voice of the customer research<br> * Asking the same question multiple times in different ways improves understanding and can uncover assumptions<br> * When discussing requirements, ask “What does that mean to you?”<br> * Keep ideation teams small (12 or less) and take steps to break down barriers, develop rapport, and establish trust to be effective<br> * Sketching concepts helps explore concepts as a group<br> * Knowledge is created through what we learn from failures<br> * Failures are steps to innovation – the belief that “it is possible” creates breakthroughs<br> <br> <br> Innovation Quotes<br> “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” -Elon Musk<br> “If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is true, then there would be little hope for advance.” -Orville Wright<br> <br> Listen Now to the Interview<br> <br> Raw Transcript<br> Thanks for Listening!<br> Thank you for joining me again. I love discussing product development and learning from the successes and failures of product innovators. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product innovation professional by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.<br>
