Now that we have a handle on the situation that we're

facing in terms of the business problem,

whether we're trying to decide to introduce a new product,

whether trying to decide what customer needs would

best be satisfied with the development of our product,

we are now at the point that we can define the specific problem that we want to move

forward with and better providing a recommendation to the problem.

So, when we talk about defining the problem,

a problem can exist in three different contexts.

One, a problem is a situation in which something important has to happen,

but we don't know why it happened.

So, that problem may exist because of other issues that lead to the problem.

Another issue that relates to problem definition is to launch or not launch a product.

Say we're at that stage of the product development process,

but we still need to decide,

should we launch the product today,

should we delay it,

or should we kill the whole product?

That's more of a decision-based problem.

And then finally, in some situations,

you're evaluating the actions that's presented to you in the case.

That's called an evaluation problem.

Cases may ask for you to evaluate a set of

circumstances that are surrounding the decision that you have to make.

For example, what research technique you should use to gather customer insight?

And you have a choice of different techniques,

but each of those techniques have advantages and disadvantages.

So, when we talk about defining the problem,

the problem itself may be one that's caused

by other issues and there are symptoms that lead to that problem.

Two, it could be a decision,

and you need additional information to help you make that decision, or three,

it could be an actual evaluation of decisions

that maybe have been made or evaluations of different tools that you can use.

So, when we're defining the problem,

whether it's a decision or an evaluation,

you have to have a clear set of issues leading up to the problem.

So, when you have the final problem,

there are different things that may have caused that problem.

For example, let's say we identify that our product that

we've introduced recently in the marketplace are experiencing low sales.

Now, that's not the problem because that is a symptom of the problem.

What we want to identify is what's led up to the fact

that your product has not adapted as well so that we can make a decision.

So, let's say you're faced with a situation,

you've introduced your product into the marketplace,

and you have high initial sales but sales began to drop off after the first purchase.

Now, the declining sales can be caused by a number of different issues.

It could be that the customer tried the product and they didn't think it met their needs,

it could be that the customer tried the product and

the price didn't reflect the value that they were receiving or it

could be that a more competitive product came out at

the same time and the customers are buying that competitive product.

All of those are individual causes that's leading up

to the fact that you have declining sales.

But your decision in this case is,

do you take the product off the market and revamp it,

do you change the price or do you try to

come up with something that's more competitive in the marketplace?

So, the problem is a result of those individual symptoms or causes that we've identified.

So, in defining the key problem,

we want to have a clear path of what's

led to that problem or decision that you have to make.

After defining the problem,

we said the next step is to develop the alternatives.

There are always several ways of solving a problem.

There are several solutions to any problem that you define.

Okay? You can always not make

the decision or you can make the decision at the very least.

But you want to prioritize your solutions based

upon factors such as how timely you have to make the decision,

whether you have budgetary constraints,

and whether you're looking more towards

the short-term effect of your solution or the long-term effect.

But we prioritize our solutions as one being better than the other

given the factors that are important at the time in which we're making that decision.

Now, once we have those alternatives in place,

we try to better understand what's the starting point to ask the "what if?"

question. What if we launch a lower priced product into the marketplace?

Do we expect immediate sale and continuous sales,

or do with expect a period for customers to adopt the product?

What if people accept a lower price and begin to want lower prices,

will it affect our profitability in the long run?

So, for our purposes,

you're developing a research plan for gathering

customer insights based upon these "what if?"

questions. So, what if your consumer research reveals that customers

believe your product fails to offer benefits superior to the competition?

At that point, you have to decide should we just stop developing the product,

should we kill the product at this point or is there something

we can do to improve the benefits and relaunch the product?

So, in the formulation of alternatives,

we have to be guided by what's our objective.

So, our alternatives are then based upon strategic objectives that we've established.

We can always introduce a product and

that product is in the long run could be successful,

but if it's based upon financial constraints that you're facing,

then you may need to be successful sooner

than when the product will actually be adopted in the marketplace.

So, the next step would be to better understand

which alternative you can implement at that particular time.

So, we evaluate the alternatives that leads to

the recommendation based upon the goals, the financial goals,

and this it be

your individual social goals whether you're more concerned about the profit,

the planet, or for people.

Now, the goals of a company when you're first

introducing the product may not be as financial,

but the fact that you're trying to get the product accepted into the marketplace.

It could be that you have long-term growth potential

and then that would guide what solution that you would recommend.

You're forgoing profits, your financial goals,

for other goals that are more important at that particular time.

If you're more concerned about how much harm you're doing to the planet,

then you may actually forgo your profit goals based upon making sure that

you're delivering a product to the marketplace that has value for protecting the planet.

So, the recommendation that you actually state you need to

be able to determine why that is

the recommendation you're going forward with at that time.

So, when we evaluate the alternatives,

how well does the alternative address the problem or

issue is the first question we want to ask.

Does it solve the problem that we identified initially?

And then, based upon that alternative,

is it consistent with respect to achieving your goals and objectives,

both in either the short run and the long run?

And then finally, is it cost effective?

Are you getting benefits that can be justified either

from your benefits exceeding the cost or,

in the long run, you will still be able

to achieve the profit goals that you've established?

So, once you have evaluated your alternatives,

state that recommendation, support that recommendation,

and stand up stating the recommendation,

and support that recommendation based upon the three criteria of

consistency with your mission as a company or as an individual,

your goals for that particular product or service

and the objectives you want to accomplish at that particular time.

After a thorough evaluation based upon what you've conducted earlier,

your recommended alternatives should seem like

the natural next step in the decision process that you're making.

So, the next step would be the action plan.

Now that we have the recommendation in place,

if we're trying to decide what is the next step of information that we need,

what is the primary research question?

And that research question will better help us understand

what information we need to collect for the purpose of the research.

The purpose of the research is it help make

a decision or is it just to provide information?

How will the information you collect be use?

And then finally, what are the time and financial constraints?

So, in most situation with the cases that we'll be talking about in this specialization,

it will be centered around the decision regarding in the development of

the product or either what type of research should be used?

And in many cases,

both time and financial constraints may dictate

the technique that you use for conducting

the research and the type of information that you will get back.

The purposes of getting the information is to make a more informed decision.

And whether you do a full-scale survey of 10,000 people versus talking to one or two,

the objective is to identify the underlying information that's pertinent to

the decision that you described or

the problem that you described earlier in your analysis.

The case analysis that we've done is to

better understand the next step that we will be taking.

By describing the action plan,

you'll be in a better position to move to that next step.

And once you have an action plan in place,

you'll be able to gather the information that you need to make an informed decision,

and that informed decision will help you make

a better product or at least decide what's the appropriate marketing research technique.

Defining the Problem

Customer Insights: New Product Development Orientation

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