Beyond The Obvious by Phil McKinney - Innovation - 5 Killer Questions - Your Customer Offerings
Whether you create a physical product, or a product as an experience or service, how do you keep developing it over the course of its life cycle? In today's hyper-competitive marketplace, you need to understand the core value of your product.
Phil Mckinney is the author of the new book, "Beyond The Obvious-Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation.
" He provides ten Killer Questions that help define what you're offering your customers.
Here are the first five to help you capture your competitive advantage...
Could I create a standardized offering of a custom product? In 1985 (pre-personal computer days), as a software developer, McKinney created a touch-typing program.
Then, computer brands required specific applications be written exclusively for them.
PC manufacturers fought to dominate the market and win the largest market share as quickly as possible.
McKinney joined a budding software company in the nascent Silicon Valley.
Limited finances prohibited the organization from writing separate programs for each operating system.
They decided to "fight the obvious solution," and take a risk.
They designed their software to run on any existing PC.
Their approach, at the time, was a 180-degree turn from the norm.
Their gamble paid off.
Today, more than twenty-five years after it was first written, the touch-typing program still works well; and is available in any big-box computer store.
How can I take advantage of emerging trends and fads? "Weak signals" are the unspoken needs and wants of your customers.
They define your customers' future needs and wants, even if they don't know it yet.
Weak signals portend something radical, and possibly uncomfortable, coming your way.
They can be found during a customer conversation, in an obscure magazine, or blog comments, to name a few.
"A weak signal is something that seeps into the zeitgeist almost unnoticed," says McKinney.
"One week you've never heard of it, the next it's a fitness or shopping craze that all of your friends have signed up for.
" Take notice when weak signals intersect with the "Rule of Five.
" It's when you've heard the same core message that "something new is happening here" five times within a short time span.
How can I eliminate customer hassles and create unique benefits for customers? "Why do people choose you over your competitors?" "Or, vice, versa.
" McKinney asks.
"How do you go about eliminating a hassle or creating a benefit to your customer if there's no obvious reason for them to pick you over your competitor?" Customers are generally quick to accept a reduction in "pleasantness" and increase in hassles, especially when the individual businesses that comprise an industry present a united front on the issue (think the airlines and baggage fees).
Low expectations and obstacles present an opportunity to surprise and excite your customers.
If you can redesign hassles, giving people new and exciting experiences, or even approximating old standards of service, they'll be happy.
Often, acknowledging the reality of the downgraded experience, instead of trying to pass it off as something "done for your convenience," helps mitigate customer frustration and reduce the perception of a hassle.
What features of my product create unanticipated passion? "What would you have to do to make your company, and its product, so essential to your customers that they would refuse to let your business die?" A popular photography company stopped producing instant film packs.
Two men (one a long-term employee and the other an analog photography fan) bought the relevant machinery from the company.
They also leased plant space and gathered a core group of employees who'd worked in the instant film division Their project isolated the elements of the instant film business that still had a value, emphasized them, and promoted them exactly to the people who would recognize, appreciate, and pay for those values.
The film's original predictability and ease of use have been eliminated, which appeals to die-hard photographers.
"An emotional bond with your customer is essential to creating a "must-have" product," says McKinney.
What emotional, psychological, or status benefits could people derive from using my product? A group of British financiers invested heavily in the South African diamond mines in the late 1880s.
They grew concerned over the discovery of vast new supplies of the supposedly scarce gem.
They knew that the value of their what (diamonds) was the public's perception of them as both extremely rare (valuable); and a sign of sophistication and affluence.
To suddenly flood the market with the gems would devalue the market.
The financiers banded together to form a consortium.
They've managed and manipulated both the supply of diamonds and the public's perception of them ever since.
Diamonds are marketed as both an investment and an emotional experience.
This encourages customers to save them rather than resell them in the future; keeping billions of dollars of privately owned diamonds off the market.
"However, the actual value of a diamond is negligible," says McKinney.
It's brilliant marketing.
Innovation contests abound.
Check out Innocentive.
com, which hosts more than 120 active challenges in a number of industries, although it leans heavily toward engineering, chemistry and health-care: https://www.
innocentive.
com.
Phil Mckinney is the author of the new book, "Beyond The Obvious-Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation.
" He provides ten Killer Questions that help define what you're offering your customers.
Here are the first five to help you capture your competitive advantage...
Could I create a standardized offering of a custom product? In 1985 (pre-personal computer days), as a software developer, McKinney created a touch-typing program.
Then, computer brands required specific applications be written exclusively for them.
PC manufacturers fought to dominate the market and win the largest market share as quickly as possible.
McKinney joined a budding software company in the nascent Silicon Valley.
Limited finances prohibited the organization from writing separate programs for each operating system.
They decided to "fight the obvious solution," and take a risk.
They designed their software to run on any existing PC.
Their approach, at the time, was a 180-degree turn from the norm.
Their gamble paid off.
Today, more than twenty-five years after it was first written, the touch-typing program still works well; and is available in any big-box computer store.
How can I take advantage of emerging trends and fads? "Weak signals" are the unspoken needs and wants of your customers.
They define your customers' future needs and wants, even if they don't know it yet.
Weak signals portend something radical, and possibly uncomfortable, coming your way.
They can be found during a customer conversation, in an obscure magazine, or blog comments, to name a few.
"A weak signal is something that seeps into the zeitgeist almost unnoticed," says McKinney.
"One week you've never heard of it, the next it's a fitness or shopping craze that all of your friends have signed up for.
" Take notice when weak signals intersect with the "Rule of Five.
" It's when you've heard the same core message that "something new is happening here" five times within a short time span.
How can I eliminate customer hassles and create unique benefits for customers? "Why do people choose you over your competitors?" "Or, vice, versa.
" McKinney asks.
"How do you go about eliminating a hassle or creating a benefit to your customer if there's no obvious reason for them to pick you over your competitor?" Customers are generally quick to accept a reduction in "pleasantness" and increase in hassles, especially when the individual businesses that comprise an industry present a united front on the issue (think the airlines and baggage fees).
Low expectations and obstacles present an opportunity to surprise and excite your customers.
If you can redesign hassles, giving people new and exciting experiences, or even approximating old standards of service, they'll be happy.
Often, acknowledging the reality of the downgraded experience, instead of trying to pass it off as something "done for your convenience," helps mitigate customer frustration and reduce the perception of a hassle.
What features of my product create unanticipated passion? "What would you have to do to make your company, and its product, so essential to your customers that they would refuse to let your business die?" A popular photography company stopped producing instant film packs.
Two men (one a long-term employee and the other an analog photography fan) bought the relevant machinery from the company.
They also leased plant space and gathered a core group of employees who'd worked in the instant film division Their project isolated the elements of the instant film business that still had a value, emphasized them, and promoted them exactly to the people who would recognize, appreciate, and pay for those values.
The film's original predictability and ease of use have been eliminated, which appeals to die-hard photographers.
"An emotional bond with your customer is essential to creating a "must-have" product," says McKinney.
What emotional, psychological, or status benefits could people derive from using my product? A group of British financiers invested heavily in the South African diamond mines in the late 1880s.
They grew concerned over the discovery of vast new supplies of the supposedly scarce gem.
They knew that the value of their what (diamonds) was the public's perception of them as both extremely rare (valuable); and a sign of sophistication and affluence.
To suddenly flood the market with the gems would devalue the market.
The financiers banded together to form a consortium.
They've managed and manipulated both the supply of diamonds and the public's perception of them ever since.
Diamonds are marketed as both an investment and an emotional experience.
This encourages customers to save them rather than resell them in the future; keeping billions of dollars of privately owned diamonds off the market.
"However, the actual value of a diamond is negligible," says McKinney.
It's brilliant marketing.
Innovation contests abound.
Check out Innocentive.
com, which hosts more than 120 active challenges in a number of industries, although it leans heavily toward engineering, chemistry and health-care: https://www.
innocentive.
com.
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