Market Mapping

A Process for Helping Product

Technology Organizations Choose
Strategic Direction Based On Emerging
Customer Values and Preferences

The Leeman Group

Management Consulting
http://theleemangroup.com
 What Do We Mean By Strategy?
„ Strategy describes how a business intends to win in the markets it
chooses to serve in the future
„ A strategy is based on anticipated future conditions, commits
resources, and leads toward a vision of what the business should
become at the end of the planning horizon (George Day, Wharton)

„ Strategy is about being different: choosing a different set of

activities that deliver a unique mix of value to selected customers
„ A company can outperform competitors only if it can establish a
difference it can preserve
„ Therefore, strategy is not about improving operational effectiveness,
although it is essential for superior performance (Michael Porter, Harvard)

„ The best strategies require a balance between analysis and

creativity

©2005 The Leeman Group 2

 Strategy Is Hierarchical
End Corporate
Strategy
Means

Business
End Strategy

Means
Functional
Strategy
End

Means
Strategic
Organizational alignment Initiatives
is critical for strategy
implementation

©2005 The Leeman Group 3

 The Challenge of Being Market Driven
„ One of the liabilities of "knowing" a market and its end use customers is that it is natural to
build up a set of assumptions about what customers want and what they don't, and about
the things that will drive their future buying behavior. This is especially true in product or
technology driven organizations.

„ Leaders in these organizations are often mystified when end use customers behave in
seemingly inexplicable ways, contrary to what seems rational. They often think the key to
success revolves around “educating” customers, based on the idea that “smarter”
customers will choose their products and services over alternatives.

„ But what’s really going on here? Why do some customers make these “bad” choices?
There must be value that these customers see in alternatives that the organization does
not. If that’s true, then what is the root source of the value/s that drive these customer
choices?

„ To discover the answers to these and similar questions, it is necessary to test

organizational assumptions in an structured way, helping management re-calibrate their
customer knowledge. Building a model of a business’ s target customers’ emerging
values, attitudes and buying behavior allows the organization to see “where the puck is
going to be”. This view then provides context for strategic decision making.

©2005 The Leeman Group 4

 About Market Mapping
„ Market Mapping takes a strategic, forward-looking approach to
crafting market driven strategy and segmentation, focusing on
where customers are going, instead of where they've been.
„ In addition, the Market Mapping process goes well beyond simply
gathering and reporting market data by providing a collaborative, team-
based process for bridging the gap between information and action.

„ Market Mapping is an ideal complement to a Future Mapping

scenario planning exercise.
„ In the same way that scenarios help leadership teams develop and
align around a common view of the future, Market Mapping addresses
alignment with customers.

©2005 The Leeman Group 5

 About Market Mapping

Market Mapping Applications

„ Market Mapping can help leadership teams address issues like
these:
„ We have a vision of the future but we’re not sure whether our
customers share it
„ We think we know the best way to segment our market but we could be
wrong
„ We simply don't know our customers well enough to understand where
they are going
„ We’re not sure which new products or services they will want in the future,
or how they’ll want to buy them
„ We think the decision process for our products/services will change but
we're not sure how
„ We expect consolidation in the industry and in our markets but we’re
not sure how that will affect our competitive position
„ We can't agree on how we should differentiate ourselves from our
competitors or on our best opportunities for growth and profitability

©2005 The Leeman Group 6

 About Market Mapping

Key Steps in Market Mapping

„ No matter how much quantitative data an organization has in hand, it is critical for
them to understand the underlying thought process of the end user and decision
maker; their wants, needs and values; the way they evaluate products. Once they
understand how customers think about the future, management will be in a position
to deliver true solutions. At it’s best, this is the threshold of discovery leading
to a breakthrough idea.
„ Market Mapping has been specifically designed for leadership teams, providing
them with both qualitative and quantitative views of customer thinking, integrated
into working hypotheses that can provide bridges to action.
„ A typical Market Mapping project has the following steps:
„ “Conventional Wisdom” Debrief To illustrate the Market
„ Materials Development and Recruiting Mapping process, we’ll use as
„ External Interviews an example a recent project
focusing on new software
„ Data Synthesis and Analysis services for advanced process
„ Strategy Workshop control of semiconductor wafer
manufacturing

©2005 The Leeman Group 7

 About Market Mapping

Conventional Wisdom Debrief

„ This establishes the starting point for the project by identifying the set of
critical uncertainties and assumptions about the future of the market
environment held by the leadership team and key internal stakeholders

„ Through a series of interviews and/or a structured workshop, we

gather input from questions like
„ Which customers are critical to your future success?
„ How are these customers evolving their business model?
„ What kinds of problems do you think these customers are trying to solve
with products and services like yours?
„ What baseline “minimum acceptable” criteria do you think these customers
use to evaluate potential suppliers and their solutions to these problems?
„ Which attributes do you think will differentiate suppliers from each other
and drive the choice of products and services in the future?

„ When Market Mapping is used in conjunction with a Future Mapping

session, the outputs from the first phase form the basis for the
strategic choices considered in the second phase

©2005 The Leeman Group 8

 About Market Mapping

Materials Development & Recruiting

„ We synthesize and integrate input from the internal Example Respondent Criteria
interviews and workshop to create the structure and content (1) Must evaluate and influence
of the customer interviews, including the choice of software systems
„ Identifying target customer segments and corresponding used for Advanced Process
demographics
„ This drives the sampling strategy, which in turn drives Control (APC) of fab tools; and
project cost and timing. (2) Are Fab Process Engineers
„ Creating and testing the interview guide/s and supplemental responsible for etch, CVD,
materials
PVD, or CMP tools; and
„ Different segments may require different interview guides
„ Pictures, flow charts and similar devices often enhance the (3) Are familiar with products
interview provided by at least two of the
„ The materials are usually fine tuned through test interviews following suppliers:
with internal personnel who are similar to target
respondents, or with friendly customers Advanced Energy, Adventa
Control Technologies,
„ Recruiting customers to interview starts after the sampling AvantCom, Brooks
strategy is approved by the client Automation, Brookside
„ We begin by developing or acquiring lists of potential Software, HPL / FabCentric,
respondents
„ While there are often many sources for lists, the degree of IBEX Process Technology,
difficulty depends on the number and visibility of potential New Vision Systems, SI
respondents
Automation, Triant
„ Respondents who meet the demographic criteria are paid an
incentive for a one hour interview in their office or in a market Technologies, Yield Dynamics
research facility

©2005 The Leeman Group 9

 About Market Mapping

Our scrap and rework

cycles are too high

External Interviews We
h
equ ave to i
ip m
thro ment u prove o
Using one-on-one In-Depth-Interviews ugh ptim ur
put e,
and
(IDI’s), Market Mapping provides capa
city
quantitative response opportunities
for customers while developing a Ou
rich database of verbatim (dev r fab (li
ice) n
yiel e) and
responses to open ended questions ds a s
re to ort
o lo
w
Co m
pelli
Example Question ng P
roble
ms
Q.2. In your role, you undoubtedly have a set of
problems or issues that concern you and that you
are currently addressing. Here are a set of cards that 10

describe common problems related to process control. Choose

and rank order the four problems that you'd most like to solve today
and in the near future, and then let’s discuss the reasons why you’ve
picked each one.

©2005 The Leeman Group 10

 About Market Mapping

Generated off-line, used to

adjust process parameters
after each run
Inte
External Interviews gr
used ated in
to th
para to adju e to
met st p o
In addition to a simple selection ers roce l,
(with in rea ss
among multiple choices, the in w l-tim
afer e
)
interviewer can ask respondents Gen
e
to rank order, scale or trade-off sop rated u
h s
mod isticate ing
specific choices of product e
met ls & hi mathe
d
r s mat
attributes, future applications or para ology to torical ical
met a dju
preferred suppliers ers
befo st pro
re e ces
Futu
re o
ac h ru s
Example Question
f Me
trolo n
gy
Q.15. Some people believe that the way metrology
data are used as an input for process control will change
1
significantly in the future. If we assume that most metrology data is
used for lot-to-lot or run-to-run process control today, which card most
accurately describes how you think metrology data will be used in the next generation
of manufacturing processes? Are there any drawbacks or trade-offs that come to mind
in order to get to that level?

©2005 The Leeman Group 11

 About Market Mapping

Data Analysis and Reporting

Market Mapping results are best presented interactively, usually in the context of a
collaborative workshop. Data is analyzed and reported in three dimensions:
quantitative, qualitative and working hypotheses. If conflicting ideas are present,
they are offered as counter arguments. Leadership teams that are comfortable with
idea conflict usually respect the results more if alternative opinions are evaluated
and considered.
Example Reports

2.5
Fab (line) and sort (device) yields are too low
2
“this is the bottom line, and can be painful because we
can’t always isolate the cause of a bad process”
Weighted Average Score

1.5 “Predictability has great value, but it’s hard to show how it
2.3 2.2
reduces cost”
1
Equipment uptime / throughput / capacity
0.5 1.1 “we’re concerned especially with "bottleneck" tools…it is
0.7
especially difficult to deal with these in a mixed device fab
0 because the tool could be different for each device type”
Fab and sort yield Uptime / throughput / Scrap and rework cycles Metrology time delay
capacity utilization

End-user initiatives to improve yield & capacity utilization will drive demand
• Mixed device fabs experience much more set-up time
• Many will want to manage production based on market demand
• Lines with more process excursions and unplanned maintenance are unacceptable
©2005 The Leeman Group 12
 About Market Mapping

Strategy Workshop
The strategy workshop is collaborative and interactive, using structured exercises
that leverage the research data to reach consensus on Strategic Direction, and a
supporting portfolio of Value Propositions and Strategic Initiatives.
MARKET DRIVEN STRATEGY SEGMENT VALUE PROPOSITION
Template Template
The choice of
Customer groups (segments) to serve For (this customer segment)
Products and services (integrated solutions) who want to “solve” (this problem),
to offer each
Differential values (benefits) to provide
Risks to take or avoid we offer
(this solution).
For the planning horizon and the
transition from the present Unlike (other alternative solutions),
we provide
Expressed by the extent and allocation (this differential benefit).
of financial and people resources
Our solutions and differential benefits
In order to achieve the strategic vision of are illustrated by (these proof statements).
the business and achieve its goals
©2005 The Leeman Group 13
 About Market Mapping

Critical Success Factors

„ Internal Collaboration:
„ Technologists will challenge an assumption, any assumption. It’s part of who
they are. That’s why they need to be involved in creating the interview guide and
actively working with the results. This can’t be just another market survey or it
will have little impact.

„ Respondent Selection:
„ Perhaps the most important set of assumptions to be tested reflects the
perceived differences and similarities across customers – the market
segmentation strategy. The people we target for interviews have to be carefully
selected from relevant segments, or the results may be discounted because
“you didn’t speak with people who represent the XYZ segment”. Recruiting the
right respondents is often difficult and time consuming but it is critical to the
credibility of the results.

„ Data Collection:
„ Considerably more sophisticated than closed-end surveys, the “peel the onion”
nature of In-Depth-Interviews requires superior interviewing skills and a
thorough knowledge of the market environment. Our consultants bring years of
experience to this task, as well as to the integration, synthesis and analysis of
the data.
©2005 The Leeman Group 14