Tag Archives: VOC

Confessions of a focus group moderator

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

Fifty years of research has shown that relative to simply interviewing customers 1:1, group techniques for ideation — focus groups and brainstorming — are harmful, as they: Reduce the number of ideas generated, and Reduce the quality/originality of the ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why do you use focus groups?

Posted on June 18, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

As has been noted in several postings on this blog, there is overwhelming evidence that focus groups and brainstorming actually: Reduce the number of ideas generated, and Eliminate the “outliers” — the most creative ideas compared to 1:1 techniques that … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods, Ideation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Focus Groups, Brainstorming, and Freddy

Posted on June 3, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

Why won’t they die? A reader made this comment on an earlier post about group-think efforts: At a conference I recently attended, we had several brainstorming sessions devoted to finding ways to improve the grant we were all on. An … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods, Ideation, NSD Process | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Gating” Ideation?

Posted on May 20, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

  Don’t fence me in… In this month’s issue of Visions magazine the owners of the stage-gate(R) trademark take a look at ideation. They conducted a survey to find the most used and most effective customer research methods. Few details are … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-creation or User collaboration, Customer Research Methods, Ideation, Stage-Gate® | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Keep the Customer at the center”

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

Customer immersion at P&G: “Living it” and “Working it” “We have figured out how to keep the consumer at the center of all our decisions,” Lafley writes. “As a result we don’t go far wrong.” Before, P&G would rely heavily … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods, Ideation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“A Fair Hearing” for customers

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

A proposed procedure for uncovering customer needs The press release from Strategyn breathlessly announces that an article by two of its principals in the Sloan Managment Review “renders… traditional Voice-of-the-Customer research obsolete…” http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?epi-content=NEWS_VIEW_POPUP_TYPE&newsId=20080410005089&newsLang=en&beanID=1791428325&viewID=news_view_popup In reality their proposed procedure makes extensive use of VOC … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods, Ideation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment