Proposing A Holistic Experience Centered Method

24th Aachen Colloquium Automobile and Engine Technology 2015

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Traditional Product Development Processes And Their Limitations – Proposing A Holistic Experience Centered Method Melissa L. Kratschmayr M.Sc., Dr. Stefan Ladwig, Prof. Dr. phil. Maximilian Schwalm Institut für Kraftfahrzeuge Aachen (ika), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

Summary Innovations targeting the customer are driven by current technical advances utilizing traditional product strategies. These conventionally integrate the customer when evaluating whether or not a product meets customers’ requirements towards the end of the development phase. This might inevitably lead to expensive adjustments on the final product. In order to avoid this, a novel, holistic approach is proposed enabling a close dialogue with the customer already at the very beginning of the innovation process. The approach is based on pre-defined everyday situations giving room to create customer-tailored solutions for an innovative product valid for these particular situations. Benefit for the manufacturer is crucial input on both priorization of current product development projects and an understanding of their product range's current positioning in the market.

1 Experience centered method in product development Customers’ increasing requirements towards individual mobility solutions as well as demographic changes challenge the automotive industry to develop new products that are not only economically justifiable but, furthermore, meet individuals’ needs [1, 2]. Therefore, integrating the customer in the process of the development of innovations is becoming more and more crucial and should hence make out a bigger part of the overall product development process [3, 4]. Current approaches of development processes are mainly driven by the development stages of new technologies and, therefore, driven by already existing product ideas [5, 6, 7]. Customers’ needs for the new product are assessed at a later stage when evaluating whether or not a product meets customers’ requirements [8]. Instead the inverse should be the case: the fulfillment of customers’ needs should be assessed by questioning the customer himself on it at the beginning of the product development phase [9]. However, asking the customer directly on what kind of product he desires might potentially cause issues. One problem most customers may have is naming an actual product as such i.e. a technical solution. This can potentially be especially difficult for non-professionals since they may not be aware of possible technical options. A potential solution may be specifically asking customers for their requirements in a

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product i.e. their expectations towards a technical solution instead of the technical solution itself. This can lead to a set of specific requirements a product may have to fulfill, which will then have to be transferred into potential technical solutions which may fulfill these by the developing engineers. Defining these needs should be approached at the very beginning of the development process and should, therefore, already be part of generating the idea for a new product.

Fig.1: Product development process: current approach supplemented by potential further process stages

An approach of a new process sequence in product development may be to start the development of ideas for new products by investigating situations in which customers may find themselves on a regular basis (see Fig. 1). Each situation may bring specific challenges resulting in particular needs customers have in these situations.


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Fig. 1: A situation experienced by a customer leading to needs and further to desired target experiences

The needs resulting from an experienced situation further lead to desired target experiences a customer aims for which serve as a desired state the customer may want to find himself in when experiencing the particular situation (see Fig. 2). Therefore, a very first step in the development process should be the identification of these customer situations.

Fig. 2: Example of a potential customer situation: traffic jam

As an example one situation a customer may find himself in on a regular basis is a traffic jam on the motorway (Fig. 3). The customer is stuck in traffic congestion, meaning he is sat in his car with hardly any movement in traffic, however, still having to focus on the traffic and the development of the congestion.

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Fig. 3: Example of a customer situation and its potential needs and desired target experiences

A potential need of a customer in such a traffic situation may be the efficient usage of his time due to the given situation (in this case the congestion) offering him time where he may not have to fully focus on the traffic situation itself since it is not as demanding. The need of the efficient usage of time, furthermore, may lead to the customer’s desired target experiences being different options his vehicle may offer, which may then lead to his need being fulfilled. One may be the windscreen functioning as a video conferencing screen, another may be the steering wheel being able to be dismantled and instead the space being used as a workstation as illustrated in Fig. 4. Important in this regard, however, is identifying customers’ needs and target experiences regardless of any current technical advances or restrictions. Instead what is being aimed at are blunt actual customer desires resulting from a given situation serving as metaphors for potential future innovations. In a further step these needs are to be prioritized by the customers giving insight on which desires are to be targeted first. Furthermore, the collected target experiences are to be evaluated in regards to technical feasibility. A thorough strategic market analysis can deliver crucial knowledge on 1) technical solutions already existing as such, 2) products satisfying customer needs being able to be developed within the next 3-5 years, 3) technical


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solutions for some needs not being possible at all using today’s technical status and 4) technical solutions potentially already existing aiming at fulfilling certain needs, however, still struggling in accurately targeting them. The example situation above of being trapped in a traffic jam and having the need to efficiently use the time wasted in the congestion is today already addressed by certain driver assistance systems such as the traffic jam assistant. These allow for the vehicle to maneuver itself automated through the traffic hereby allowing the customer to potentially use his time efficiently for other regards. However, comparing the actual customer need of efficient time usage with this technical solution may show that the need is actually not fully satisfied. Instead, in current systems customers may still have to have one hand on the steering wheel restricting them from fully being able to complete secondary tasks. The comparison of current existing products and defined customer needs may give indications on remaining open issues which still may need to be addressed technically in order to completely fulfill customers’ desires. Additionally, insight on competitors' products potentially fulfilling certain customer needs already one's own products may not be addressing yet are given, serving as a further indication when evaluating and defining future actions. The aim is to evaluate which innovative products (either ones existing already or ones that can be developed) can respond to customers’ desires in the most efficient manner. This can then help to strategically prioritize the manufacturer’s own current technical product development foci and targets. As a result of several situations being analyzed in regards to customer needs and target experiences, a so called ‘customer journey’ can be identified [10]. Different crucial situations customers experience with a product deliver individual needs with individual priorities. The aim is to identify specifications for a product from grouping the situations and their corresponding needs. Examining such a customer journey can help understand a) different situations as such that are experienced and b) needs changing depending on the situation. Applying this novel approach of basing ideas for innovations on customer situations cannot only be useful in the area of product development but also in other contexts such as actions and procedures in the sales and after-sales section. For example one situation may be the actual delivery of a new vehicle to a customer after purchase. In this situation one need may be to fully understand all functions within the car. A further target experience may for example be the sales person handing over the vehicle to the customer taking dedicated time out to explain the car’s functionality in detail. Alternatively, another target experience may be a virtual passenger constantly present in the vehicle, explaining all vehicle’s functions while driving and experiencing actual situations where these functions would be useful. Here the strategic market analysis may deliver input on whether or not this desire is already fulfilled by driver assistance systems which already offer virtual support on technical functions.

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2 Procedure of the experience centered method The experience centered method being an approach of situations being regarded in terms of their resulting needs and target experiences operatively consists of different qualitative and quantitative phases (see Fig. 5).

Fig. 4: Procedure of experienced centred method

The first qualitative phase is the general identification of situations a manufacturer’s target customer group may experience with the brand’s existing products. Within the automotive industry these may be situations around owning and driving a vehicle. As a next (quantitative) step manufacturers’ experts prioritize their collection of situations in regards to selecting situations to be further elaborated. These crucial situations are to represent experiences their general customer group may have and in which they may suffer individual challenges which are not yet overcome by the brand’s current product range. The selection of the situations is a crucial step since they are the basis for the needs and target experiences resulting from these and, therefore, serve as the basis for the ideas for a new product gained through the approach.


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The subsequent qualitative step is the conduction of small focus groups in which target customers are being actively questioned in regards to each situation. The selection of customers is another crucial aspect in the process as it is important to choose real target users of the manufacturers’ existing product range while also allowing for a wide range of different characteristics such as age and experience with the brand’s existing products. Ideally these focus groups are to be conducted in different locations representing key market areas of the manufacturer with different groups of target customers representing people with different characteristics. The aim is to have the selected situations elaborated by different types of relevant customers in order to gain as much insight on potential needs and target experiences of different customer groups as possible. Characteristics such as different nationalities may lead to customer desires differing and by that delivering crucial input and feedback for the manufacturer aiming at identifying new product ideas. In groups of around eight people, customers are given one individual situation at a time and are being asked to discuss their potential needs in the particular situation. Furthermore, desired target experiences are identified. Hereby it is crucial to focus on encouraging customers to name needs and desires in a specific situation regardless of any technical restrictions. A dedicated designer is to graphically illustrate different issues being named by the customers allowing for a more active discussion as well as an easier and more vivid illustration of complex customer desires. Following the group discussion on a specific situation customers are, in a next quantitative step, asked to prioritize the desired target experiences they named in regards to how important they are to currently be fulfilled. In a subsequent qualitative stage, manufacturers can conduct strategic market research on their current positioning within the industry regarding the comparison to competitors potentially already offering necessary technical solutions as well as crucial input on strategic priorization of current product development targets. Furthermore, manufacturers are to evaluate in a further optional qualitative phase to what extend customer needs can already be fulfilled using their current technological advances and which innovations can potentially be developed further fulfilling them in an efficient manner. This will generate valuable input in regards to strategic planning of future product development targets and options for short-term profits within the market. Finally, if a product’s development is feasible with the current status of technology, customer needs are to be translated into technical specifications for that product by a developing engineer.

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3 Application of new approach in the context of an European R&D project The new approach of gaining ideas for innovations within product development by evaluating customer situations together with real end-users in regards to their desires is currently being applied within an European R&D project funded by Horizon 2020. EU-LIVE (Efficient Urban Light Vehicles) focuses on offering a solution to challenges provided by continuous urbanization by covering a wide range of L-category vehicles [11]. The L-category vehicle industry struggles particularly in Europe with selling more than only low to medium volumes per vehicle model. Due to this leading to increased component and subsystem costs, prices for purchasing a model rise and, therefore, result in customers finding the product less attractive. Furthermore, development methods and tools available in the L-category industry are often limited and less elaborated than in the passenger car industry. These issues, leading to increased costs and times in development, could be overcome by an intense cooperation (transfer of knowledge on e.g. methods, components and technologies) with the passenger car industry and by applying a modular approach to a wide range of L-category vehicles increasing attractiveness for customers [11]. Within the EU-LIVE project the new approach of the experience centered method is being applied in order to gain valuable knowledge in regards to customers’ requirements towards such a new vehicle concept. In focus groups at different European locations target customers are identifying their needs and desired target experiences in everyday traffic situations. In an analysis of the outcome specific technical requirements needing to be fulfilled by the new vehicle concept are gained. As a first step potential traffic situations in which this new vehicle concept may be experienced or may offer solutions to challenges standard vehicles would arise, are being collected. Within the project’s expert group these are then prioritized in regards to relevance to the idea of the new vehicle concept. Crucial is the identification of actual situations which a) offer an everyday experience a customer using a standard vehicle may have in order to evaluate whether or not the new vehicle concept may offer solutions to potential needs in these situations; and b) situations which customers may experience using both, the new vehicle concept as well as the standard vehicle. Subsequently, customers are being questioned within focus groups in different European locations in regards to their individual needs in a specific given situation. The aim is to conduct focus groups consisting of customer groups of different characteristics. One main feature being compared between these groups is the needs and desired target experiences differing according to nationality as well as their homes’ proximities to a large city. Hypothetically end-users driving through large cities on a regular basis have different requirements towards a transporting product than customers living and mainly driving through rural areas. Furthermore, customers from southern European countries may provide different needs than customers from northern areas. Also, characteristics such as age, education and family size are very likely to trigger different responses to individual situations.


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Overall, the aim on the one hand is to thoroughly understand in which situations such a new vehicle may be a solution to requirements occurring which are not covered by standard vehicles. On the other hand evaluating the requirements, which lead to actual technical specifications being defined for the subsequent technical development of the vehicle concept. Once a prototype has been developed, based on requirements defined within the focus groups, it will be evaluated in a customer clinic. Test subjects will assess the prototype in regards to different subjective measures such as acceptance. Data gathered in this user clinic will allow for the evaluation in regards to whether or not customer needs identified within the focus groups have successfully been fulfilled and, therefore, hypothetically raised subjective levels such as acceptance.

4 Conclusion and Prospect Individual mobility solutions in interaction with demographic changes are subject to present discussions in the automotive industry. The challenge is to develop new products that are not only economically justifiable but, furthermore, meet individuals’ needs [1, 2]. An effective method to face this challenge is to tie the customer closely into the development processes of innovations which is already applied in current product development processes [5, 6, 7]. However, asking the customer directly on what kind of product he desires might be ineffective due to a lack of sufficient knowledge on technical issues. Furthermore, development processes are mainly driven by and based on already existing product ideas, and in some cases the valuable customer needs are assessed at a late stage when evaluating whether or not a product meets customers’ requirements [8]. Taken together, this might inevitably lead to expensive adjustments on the final product. The here proposed user centered method offers an inverse approach: The fulfillment of customers’ needs assessed by questioning the customer himself on it at the beginning of the product development phase [9]. In more detail customers are being asked for their requirements on a product regarding particular everyday situations i.e. their expectations towards a technical solution instead of the technical solution itself. This can further lead to a set of specific requirements a product might have to fulfill, which will then have to be transferred into potential technical solutions. This procedure might provide valuable, more detailed insights on real customer needs and requirements towards products. Through this, new ideas for innovations can be gained as well as manufacturers’ business strategies adapted and potentially improved. Prospects of the market can be foreseen more easily as well as crucial decisions towards product planning made based on valuable data stemming from the targeted customer. This can potentially lead to large companies' savings by aligning future development costs to actual desired and required products.

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24th Aachen Colloquium Automobile and Engine Technology 2015 [8]

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