The front end of product development can become quickly mired in inefficiency. This benefit should speak for itself: Without documenting the requirements, customer needs are simply a game of telephone that can be misinterpreted from department to department.

Consider performance metrics (or “Critical to Quality” metrics aka CTQs), concepts, design characteristics, process parameters, and production controls. Without determining performance goals, there’s no way to measure how well the product is fulfilling customer needs. Obtain buy-in from stakeholdersĪll areas of the organization need to be informed about the customers’ needs so that they can create processes for developing, marketing, and selling to those needs. Understanding how customers will judge your product’s value is key throughout the entire development process. They may not see its value how you see it.

Predict how customers will perceive a product’s value The quality function deployment aims to understand customers better than they know themselves. Often, customers don’t even know what they want or need. This methodology can provide many benefits. It’s a very technical-sounding name for a process that essentially helps businesses integrate the Voice of the Customer (VOC) into product development.

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