Customer-Centric Product Definition—The Key to Great Product Development

Customer-Centric Product Definition: The Key to Great Product Development (AMACOM 2002) introduces a product definition strategy that places customer need at the top of the list of product development criteria. According to author Sheila Mello, managing partner of Product Development Consulting, Inc., a product is only as valuable as the purchasing market proves it to be. Her book is designed to help new-product professionals:

• Avoid the up-front errors that can sideline product development initiatives
• Reduce time to market by up to 40%
• Dramatically improve top- and bottom-line performance
• Develop products that will both please customers and command premium prices

According to Mello, “The key to success is paradoxically simple: Delight the customer by creating a product that fills a specific need in the marketplace better than competing solutions.” However, she warns that although the idea may be simple, its execution is anything but. Mello advocates the use of Market-Driven Product Definition (MDPD) to address the customer's requirements in a systematic, analytical, and repeatable way to generate a product definition that will lead to innovative product solutions and measurable results for companies.

The implementation of MDPD will help answer the following tricky product development questions:

• What are the meaningful customer/market requirements for a new or enhanced product?
• Which customer-value-based requirements should the product development effort target in order to create competitive differentiation in the market?
• What trade-offs can be made in the product development process, and how will these affect the product?
• What product features represent value for customers and which will exceed customer expectations, resulting in delighted customers?
• How should a company invest its resources in developing particular product features to satisfy customer-value-based needs?
• Exactly what product features or attributes should the solution set include?
• Which customer requirements need only be equivalent to competitive offerings in the market to avoid adversely affecting projected market capture?