Why I wrote this guide

Outside-in thinking wins

As a digital strategy consultant I work with many clients on many different projects, all related to marketing, IT and technology.

During these stints, I always advocate for the customer voice. The ultimate goal of every business is "not to sell, supply or service, but to satisfy the needs that drive customers to buy" (Hanan and Karp, 1989).

Individual people at the clients I work with agree that the customer perspective is essential. But when decisions become an organisational matter, the customer voice often becomes lost in the mix of internal goals, beliefs and politics.

Some clients even prefer not to talk to their customers. They fear customers will ask for the impossible. Others think they already know what customers want and have a very hard time imagining anything else.

Why companies are not inclined to talk to their customers is out of the scope of this guide, but it makes one thing clear: be ready to make a good argument for integrating the customer voice in anything you undertake, because in many cases the default stance is: “we’d rather not”.

I had the most success using these arguments:

• A service or product that produces no value for its user, will not be used. It will be a waste of money;

• We're not just listening to customers, we're measuring their potential satisfaction with what you're (planning on) doing. We will have hard data to base our decisions on.

The first argument is one most clients agree with philosophically, but not enough to open their wallets for. They do prick up their ears when they hear the second argument.

That's where the Kano method fits in. It is one of the few practical methods of measuring a customer's perception of value.

Done well, it's a powerful tool to base decisions on and make the right trade-offs. Teams and their managers are more confident in their decisions and are more able to defend why they spend time and effort on something. It also cuts right through the HiPPO (the "Highest Paid Person's Opionion") effect. That's a godsend.

I wrote this guide because I want companies to think more from the outside-in when creating and delivering a product or service. Companies -- or any organisation for that matter -- should never forget that they exist by the grace of their clients. I hope this guide will move the needle a little bit in the right direction.