Killing product ideas is tough. Very often companies lack criteria to pick the bad apples from the good. It would be ideal to be able to stop an idea as early in development as possible. To drop a product idea sometimes makes much more sense than finishing the concept, or even worse taking a product off the market. But what could such criteria be?
If a product succeeds or flops, it is only the customer who decides. We think of customers as people trying to accomplish a job, e.g. »to get from A to B«. To do so they use products, e.g. a car or a train. But why do they choose one product over another? Because the solution they choose satisfies their needs better than any other available solution. And »more value« is just another term for »satisfying the customer’s needs«
Nothing is of any value if it does not satisfy a certain need. Knowing the exact customer’s needs are the criteria companies long for. This knowledge enables you to dismiss ideas, which will not succeed in the market. Or as a recent client put it:
»I now see better than before that a product will fail if the customers don’t get a specific solution for the jobs they want to fulfill. Now I know which ideas are not worth to be pursued any further.«
Our approach tells you what the customer really needs and what he does not need at all – and by definition will not buy.