PROBLEM-BASED

IDEATION:
FINDING AND
SOLVING
CUSTOMER’S
PROBLEMS
Lesson 5
4 SOURCES FOR NEEDS AND
PROBLEMS OF
STAKEHOLDERS
Internal Records
-the most common source of needs and problems comes from an
organization’s routine contacts and others in the marketplace.

-one approach to handling use complaints is the

hotline or toll-free number.
 Direct inputs from Technical and
Marketing Departments

-Understanding about end-users and other stakeholders also lies in the

minds of marketing and technical people.
 Problem analysis
-Industry, a business firm, or a famous business person cites some key
time when a new good or service capitalized on a problem that others
did not sense or appreciate.

Inventory is sometimes used to describe this category or techniques,

taking the inventory is only the beginning- analysis is the key.
 Scenario Analysis
The fourth general source of stakeholder needs is Scenario Analysis
because the ideal problem for us to find is one that customers or end-
users don know they have this time.
 Problem Analysis Procedure

STEP ONE:
-Determine the appropriate product or activity category for exploration.
 STEP TWO
Identify a group of heavy product users or activity participants within
this category.
-Heavy Users are apt to have a better understanding of the problems,
and they represent the bulk of the sales potential in most markets.
- A Variation is to study non users to see if a solvable problem is
keeping them out of the market.
 STEP THREE
Gather from these heavy users or paticipants a set of problems
associated with the category.
Study the entire system of product use or activity.
This is the inventory phase mentioned earlier, but far more is involved
than just asking respondents to list their problems.
Complaints are common and often taken as request for new products.
 STEP FOUR

- Sort and rank problems according to their severity or importance.

 METHODOLOGIES TO USE
EXPERTS
-Using them as surrogates for end users, based on their experience in the
category under study.

PUBLISHED SOURCES
-are frequently useful-studies , the firm’s own past on aid subjects,
government reports, investigations by social critics, scientific studies in
the universities and so on.
Stakeholder contacts
-the third, and most productive, is to seek out the voice of the customer
( VOC)- that is, we will ask household or business/ industry
customers directly , via interviewing etc.
Interviewing is the most common method by far is direct, or one-on-
one interviewing.
Observation are routed in sociological studies, and involve watching
customers ( or non customers ) using products in their own
environments.
ROLE PLAYING
- Has long been used in psychology to enhance creativity, there is little
evidence of its successful use in generating ideas for new products.
 SOLVING THE PROBLEMS
 Once an important user problem has been indentified we can begin
solving it.
 Note that he problem has to be carefully specified in order that a
good, creative solution is found.
Group Creativity
New products people use individual problem solving effort, but many
think that a group creativity is more effective.

Brainstorming
 because the term brainstorming has worked its way so deep into our
language ,it is widely abused.
 Thomas Kelly – laid out several rules for making brainstorming
sessions more effective.
These include:
-Mind the Rules ( go for a large quantity of ideas, defer judgement, no
snickering allowed.)
Number the ideas (can you hit 100 ideas per hour)
Jump and build (when the group hits a plateau, the facilitator
suggest a new direction)
Get physical
Electronic Brainstorming and Computer-
assisted creativity techniques
-Some individual may still fear being criticized for having unpopular
ideas.

-Electronic Brainstorming , a form of brainstorming assisted by GSS

software, are said to overcome these limitations of traditional
brainstorming as they allow participants to all answer at once and
anonymously.
Ex. Room set up with a set of computer terminals.
Discipline Panels
Assemble experts from all relevant disciplines and have them
discuss the problem as a Discipline Panels.

Ex. A panel on new methodas or packaging fresh veg. might include

representatives from home economics, physics, nutrition, medicine,
ecology and so on.