Summary: This article is step 1 parts 6, 7 and 8 of our market research guide.
Step 1 – Part 6
Now for each job and outcome, ask about detriments/constraints that may prevent consumers from either using or buying a new product or service.
Think of these as removing obstacles that prevent people doing a job altogether or under certain circumstances.
Such detriments are often functional, emotional, social, time/convenience, psychological, or financial in nature.
Ask –
- What gets in the way of doing these jobs and fulfilling these outcomes?
- What outcomes were you trying to satisfy and couldn’t?
- What things are you trying to avoid when you complete these jobs and outcomes?
- What don’t you like about doing the job?
- What does the solution not do well? What do you hate about the current solutions you use?
- What takes too long when you use that product or do that job?
- What costs too much?
- Does they way people may think about you stop you?
- What things does your chosen solution not do well?
- Describe the worst/best experience you had with your solution.
This is a way of finding out the detriments people have to experience. These may well not be glaringly obvious at first. For example, the fact I have to throw my razor blade away every 2 weeks is obviously a detriment, but because I am so used to it, I may not see it as a big deal. But if one day I didn’t have to do it, suddenly I’d realise what a pain it actually was!
Finding out if something is a detriment is easy. Ask - Do you like doing it? Would you avoid it if you could? Is that a good thing or a bad thing – a positive or a negative?
Take the device that requires diabetics to take small blood samples on a strip. When having a diabetic episode, they were suffering hazy visions, and shakes, hardly the best of times to be handing a needle! A new product did away with the needle and made it easier to record samples whilst having an episode, and soon achieved a 45% market share.
Step 1 – Part 7
Now for each detriment, get the Opportunity Scores for the outcomes associated with it.
Again, as with outcomes, we need to see how important these detriments are to consumers.
- What are the weighting points out of 100 for the importance of each detriment outcome splitting 100 points between them all?
- Rank the importance of each outcome for 1st to last
- What’s the importance of each on a scale of 10 – 1, with 10 being most important?
- How dissatisfied are you with each on scale of 10 – 1, with 10 being totally dissatisfied?
Step 1 – Part 8
Consider using the Kano Test.
This is a great way to work if you are looking at competitors’ product features or proposed features you may want to introduce. Here you ask how respondents would feel about certain attributes present.
They then go on and rate them as
- Delighted
- Expect it that way/must be that way
- Neutral
- Not like it but could live with it,
- It must not be that way.
Here you can see what could be dropped due to indifference, what needs to be focused on and excelled because they either increase or decrease satisfaction – attractive features, and what is enough just to meet the normal standard. For example satisfaction does not increase from a car buyer if there are no leaks, squeaks, and rattles, they are just expected not to be there, but if one of them occurs dissatisfaction will occur, as you know these are Qualifier Value Factors. These are “Deal Breakers” – in that if a consumer can’t get just one of – for example for budget flights, book over the web, find a destination they like or get the best prices in a deal, no amount of excellence in these factors or all the others will matter as the deal will not be made!
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