Technique 2.33 Looking at Your Services & Products
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Answering the following questions should help identify the appropriate sense of urgency
1. "De-average" buyers and users
- Describe which customers use or purchase your services and products in the most unusual way?
- Describe why some customers need significantly less sales and service attention than most?
- Describe why some customers' support costs (cost entry, tracking, customer-specific design, etc) are either unusually high or unusually low?
- Describe how you could still meet the needs of a significant subset of customers, if you stripped 25% of the costs (hard and soft) from your service or product?
2. Explore unexpected successes
- Describe how some customers use your services or products in a never expected or intended way?
- Describe how some customers use your services or products in surprisingly large quantities?
3. Examine binding constraints
- Describe the biggest hassle for purchasing or using your service or product?
- Describe some examples of ad hoc modifications that customers have made to your service or product?
- Describe customers for whom services or products are now least suited?
- Describe what particular occasions your service and products at least suited?
- Describe which customers the industry prefers not to serve?
- Describe which customers are potential major users, if one specific barrier was removed?
4. Imagine perfection
- How would you do things differently if you had perfect information about buyers, usage, distribution channels, etc?
- Describe what service or product changes would occur to satisfy all customers?
5. Look beyond the boundaries of your business
- Describe how others are dealing with the similar problems you have, especially if they are doing it in a different way?
- Describe any major breakthroughs in efficiency or effectiveness that you have made in your business that is applicable to another industry?
- Describe any information about customers, service or product usage that is created as a by-product of your business that could help radically improve another business?
6. Revisit the concepts that underlies the way you conduct your business- Describe what technologies embedded in your services or products that have changed most since the product was last redesigned?
- Describe what technologies have most have changed the way you conduct your business, such as manufacturing processes, marketing (includes selling) and distribution systems?
- Describe which customers' needs are shifting most rapidly? What will they look like in 5 years?
(source: Keith P Coyne et al, 2007)
