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Successful product innovation requires clarity on what
'success' means. A successful new product typically means different
things to different stakeholders -- customers, developers, inventors, marketers,
producers, stockholders, etc.
These needs must be consolidated into a clear goal early in the
innovation cycle. Where some aspects are not yet clear, getting
that clarity becomes part of the goal.
The best format for Goal Deliberation seems to be face-to-face meetings
among all the stakeholders.
The best tool for collating and remembering the outcomes seems to
be the simple regimen of recording the discussions in a structured table.
This table takes different forms in different discussions.
With long-term customers, a Customer Needs Analysis can get quickly
to identifying the needs and the hurdles of "must have" and "nice to have".
Discussions with new or prospective customers may need to elicit broader
commercial needs. These are often called Key Purchase Criteria.
Other goals come from internal stakeholders. The new product
must fit in the business strategy and must be supported in the supply
chain. These needs may be more 'negotiable' than external customers'
but they are just as critical.
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In the end, differences in opinion cannot be ignored -- they
must be bridged.
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