Lecture 7
9/11/11
Documentum Salient Points:
 Effectively identified a problem
 Built a technical solution
 Good management team
 Issues:
 How to choose a target market?
 Vertical versus Horizontal
 What type of sales team do they need?
Documentum Questions:
 What did Documentum learn from the first two customers?
 Should they go with the insurance company deal?
 Is Moore’s approach to selecting the market a good one for
the company?
 Differences between vertical and horizontal market?
Documentum Sales Strategy???
Horizontal
Vertical
Value Proposition
Automating mission critical
bus process in large
companies
Specific solution to business
problem
Customers
Principals from both IT and
line business unit
Sell to bus person directly
affected by the application
Partners
Need tech partners to fill
product holes
Need systems integrators to
stitch together multiple
pieces of software
Who do you sell to?
IT visionaries
Pragmatists
First Sale
Visionaries are more
accepting of technologies and
will sell software internally
Nobody wants to be the
guinea pig
Second Sale
Find another visionary?
Easier in the vertical
Importance of WOM
From visionary to visionary
References from visionaries
do not work for pragmatists
Success Rate/Control
LOW/low
HIGH/high
Lead Users
 Two characteristics of lead users (von Hippel, 1988)
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2.
Experience needs months or years ahead of time that will be general in
the market
Stand to benefit significantly from a solution of the needs.
 Lead users have the competence or knowledge to innovate
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.[10]
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Lead Users
 Advantages:
 It is usual to run a workshop with extreme and analogous users, to
develop product concepts.
 Workshops brings together very different users and stimulates creative
discussions.
 Can be combined with experimentation, to test the concepts
identified in the workshop.
 Disadvantages:
 Difficulties in identifying lead users.
 Workshop is time-consuming and lead users may need to be
motivated to give their time.
 Workshop is outside the normal working environment.
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Traditional Approaches
 Traditional market research uses mainly:
 Surveys
 Questionnaires
 Interviews
 Focus groups.
 Traditional market research compares existing products serving
similar customers.
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Empathic Design
 Defined as “the creation of product or service concepts based on a
deep(empathic) understanding of unarticulated user needs”
 Empathic design is a relatively low cost, low-risk way to identify
potentially critical customer needs.
 Empathic design techniques include gathering, analysing, and
applying information gleaned from observation in the field.
 The foundation of empathic design technique is Observation
conducted in the customer’s own environment, but also includes
discrete observation and contextual interviews.
[5]
[6]
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Observation
 This directly assesses the use and potential of products rather
than customers’ perceptions.
 Occurs in the customers’ own environment.
 The key to effective observation is the preparation of a good
coding scheme.
 The coding scheme gives the observer points to watch for and
therefore prevents oversights.
 This generic coding scheme is comprised of seven categories of data
forcing the observer to look at not only how the product fits into
the user’s overall environment but also to look for signals that
indicate unarticulated needs.
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Observation
 A good observer will seek subtle signs such as;
 extra-linguistic signals – Speed and emphasis in speech
 non-verbal signals – body language
 Spatial signals – proximity of a user to others or objects
 It is important to note that actions can be influenced by the
presence of the observer.
 Time Consuming
 Analysis can be complex
 Observation is a difficult skill to learn
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Discrete Observation
 Users are observed without their knowledge or permission.
 Only viable for consumer products and services that are used in
public.
 Advantage
 Vital information can be obtained.
 Disadvantage
 Can raise ethical issues.
 Type of usage that can be discretely observed might not be typical.
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Contextual Interviews
 Conducted in the user’s environment.
 Focuses discussions with customers or users on the physical
aspects of their environment.
 Semi-structured interview script that concentrates on key steps of
product usage.
[8]
 Produces verbal data on product usage that might not be
generated in pure observation of a single user working alone.
 Focuses on how the customer “feels” during the service delivery
process.
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Empathic Design: the Process
 Step One:
Observation
 Who should be observed?
 Who should do the observing?
 A small team, each member in which has expertise in a different discipline. At
least one member should have experience in behavioural observation and
another should have an in-depth knowledge of organisational capabilities. Each
team member must have an open-mind, observational skills, and curiosity.
 What behaviour should be observed?
 Step Two:
Capturing Data
 This can be completed through visualisation
 Photography and video recording are popular approaches used by
empathic-design teams.
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Empathic Design: the Process cont..
 Step Three: Reflection and Analysis
 Team members reflect on what they observed and review any visual
data with other colleagues.
 Team identifies all of its customers; possible problems and needs.
 Step Four:
Brainstorming for Solutions
 Valuable part of any innovation process
 Brainstorming can transform the observations into graphic, visual
representations of possible solutions.
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Empathic Design: the Process cont..
 Step Five:
Developing Prototypes of Possible Solutions
 Prototypes are critical for the following reasons:
 Prototypes clarify the concept of the new product or service for the
development team.
 They enable the team to place its concept in front of other individuals who
work in functions not formally represented on the team.
 They can simulate reaction and foster discussion with potential customers of
the innovation.
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Advantages and Disadvantages of
Empathic design
 Advantages:
 Increasingly used to focus on users’ problems.
 Gives an in-depth understanding of customers’ and users; product
use models.
 Contextual interviews are “in vivo” and the environment gives
valuable information.
 Disadvantages:
 Effective observation is not easy and using specialists may be the best
approach.
 Vast amounts of qualitative data may be generated, which requires
effective analysis strategies.
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