Voice of the Customer 1
Voice of the Customer - Part 1 1
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
© 2009 ~ Mark Polczynski
Voice of the Customer 2
Scenario
Planning
Intellectual
Property
Generation
Technology
Roadmapping
Voice
of the
Customer
New
Concept
Ideation
An Integrated Strategic Technology Planningand Development Environment
Voice of the Customer 3
Voice of the Customer Input Process:
• Purpose
~ Reveal unrecognized customer needs - what we don’t know.
~ Validate our perceptions and plans - what we do know.
• Desired Strengths
~ Systematic vs. anecdotal – turns over most of the rocks.
~ Fact-based vs. opinion-based prioritization of needs.
• Potential Weaknesses
~ Can create inappropriate customer expectations.
~ Risks compromising intellectual property – tip our hand.
~ Can keep us from being more inventive than our customers.
Voice of the Customer 4
QFD Resources
• We will be using a QFD format based on QFD Designer, available from
IDEACore (www.ideacore.com). You can download a free demo
version of their product from their web site. The download contains a
good users manual.
• Another good reference is: Quality Function Deployment,
by Lou Cohen.
• Also, here is a link to an on-line QWFD tutorial by Dr. Robert Hunt. This
includes some templates you might find useful.
http://www.gsm.mq.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/internet/Root/research/researchclusters/cmit/tutorials/
Voice of the Customer 5
Quality Function Deployment
• Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a
common general method invented in Japan
in the late sixties initially to support the ship
building product design process.
• QFD has been adapted and expanded to apply to
any planning process that requires:
~ identification and prioritization (whys)
~ of possible responses (hows)
~ to a given set of objectives (whats).
• Other formal, systematic V-O-C processes exist. We use QFD to
demonstrate one way to obtain customer inputs.
Voice of the Customer 6
HKT QFD
Origin of the term Quality Function Deployment:
• Hinshitsu quality; qualities; features; attributes
• Kino function; mechanization
• Tenkai deployment; diffusion; development; evolution
So, somehow, we ended up calling this “Quality Function Deployment”,
But it just as well could have been “Attributes Mechanization Evolution”.
Voice of the Customer 7
What specific problems are solved by QFD?
• Poor understanding of customer needs -~ Solve the wrong problems, miss the big problems.
• Failure to strategically prioritize efforts -~ No time and money left to solve the most important problems.
• Willingness to take on unmanageable risks -~ Don’t know what we are committing to.
• Overreliance on formal specifications -~ Spec often misses “contextual cues”,
e.g., why are we building this in the first place?
• Fixing the wrong problems -~ Often times forced to ship product before all bugs are eliminated,
so did we fix enough of the most important bugs?
Voice of the Customer 8
NOTE!
• QFD takes significant time and effort to do correctly.
• It is explicitly (visibly) time-consuming – meetings, reviews, delays.
BUT…
• Every issue resolved by QFD before-the-fact..
• Must be resolved after the fact anyway!
Pay me now, or pay me later - with interest.
Voice of the Customer 9
Purpose of QFD
1. Find out what your customer’s specific needs are (WHATs),
2. Determine the things you need to work on(HOWs),
3. Determine priorities of what you should work on (WHYS).
Voice of the Customer 10
• The following is an example of QFD applied to the“Perfect Mousetrap”, from QFD Designer.
Example QFD
Voice of the Customer 11
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
The Whole
Nine Yards
Please remain calm,
it’s not that bad!
Whys
Voice of the Customer 12
QFD Diagram is sometimes call the “House of Quality” because of the shape.
But people use the term “House of Quality” for other diagrams, too.
Voice of the Customer 13
Building a QFD Matrix
It’s not as bad as it looks!
• You can build it one section at a time.
– Phase 1: Whats
– Phase 2: Hows
– Phase 3: Whys
Let’s look at the steps in building the matrix…
Voice of the Customer 14
QFD Phase 1: Whats
Phase 1: Whats
Phase 2: Hows
Phase 3: Whys
Voice of the Customer 15
1. Gather WHATs -
These are the desired
effects you are trying
to bring about.
Not problems or solutions!
Phase 1
Voice of the Customer 16
Phase 1
2. Quantify Importances of WHATs
Rated by customer, not by you.
Voice of the Customer 17
3. Identify WHAT-WHAT
Correlations -
How do the WHATs
affect each other?
Phase 1
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Voice of the Customer 18
Many negative correlations tells
customer that product will be
expensive and will take a
long time to develop.
Phase 1
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
A trap that kills quickly is
not easy to set, so this is a
strong negative correlation.
Voice of the Customer 19
Phase 1
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Controls customer
expectations!
Customer may choose to
re-prioritize items
with strong negative
interactions.
Voice of the Customer 20
Sneak
Preview
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Negative correlations are
prime targets for
“ideation” processes.
“How can we make a
trap that kills quickly
and is easy to set?”
Voice of the Customer 21
Logical grouping of WHATs…
Eliminates Mice Luring Effective LuringGood Camouflage
Effectiveness Reliable
Small
Kills Quicklyetc…
Easy to Use Easy to Bait
Easy to Set
Easy to Emptyetc…
Safety Safe to Set
Safe from Kidsetc…
Controls Government EPAetc…
Voice of the Customer 22
Phase 14. Gather Competitor Ratings
Your customer’s assessment of
your offering vs. your competitors.
Customer NeedCustomer
Importance
Your
Offering
Competitor
Offering
Attracts mice 3 High High
Operates relaibly 5 Medium Low
Kills quickly 2 Low Medium
Easy to bait 3 Low Low
Easy to set 4 Medium High
Easy to dispose 5 High Medium
Voice of the Customer 23
Phase 1
5. Determine Required
Improvement -
Which really needs
improvement?
.
Customer NeedCustomer
Importance
Your
Offering
Competitor
Offering
RELATIVE
Customer
Importance
Attracts mice 3 High High ?
Operates relaibly 5 Medium Low ?
Kills quickly 2 Low Medium ?
Easy to bait 3 Low Low ?
Easy to set 4 Medium High ?
Easy to dispose 5 High Medium ?
Voice of the Customer 24
What will yourstrategy be?
If customer importance = highAnd your product = high
And competitor product = highThen relative importance = ???
If customer importance = highAnd your product = high
And competitor product = lowThen relative importance = ???
If customer importance = high…etc…
Customer NeedCustomer
Importance
Your
Offering
Competitor
Offering
RELATIVE
Customer
Importance
Attracts mice 3 High High ?
Operates relaibly 5 Medium Low ?
Kills quickly 2 Low Medium ?
Easy to bait 3 Low Low ?
Easy to set 4 Medium High ?
Easy to dispose 5 High Medium ?
Voice of the Customer 25
However you do the comparison, the goal of customer assessment is:
Don’t waste resources improving things that the customer doesn’t valueand therefore won’t pay for!
You have existing productYou have no existing
product
Your competitor has
existing product
Your existing product vs.
their existing product
Their existing product vs.
ideal product
Your competitor has
no existing product
Your existing product vs.
ideal productNA
Possible comparison strategies…
Voice of the Customer 26
This approach can be applied for development of:
• New products,
• New services,
• New technologies Comparison with existing/competing technologies.
Voice of the Customer 27
Thus Ends Phase 1 - Whats Phase 1
Voice of the Customer 28
• WHATs tend to show up in similar forms for different
customers/applications/products,
• Thus, there will always be some basic commonality to the list of
WHATs.
• You probably don’t need to start from scratch every time once you’ve
done a few of these,
• You can probably build a common library of generic WHATs,
• Identifying WHATs in this structured environment gets much easier
with experience!
Hints on Identifying WHATs
Voice of the Customer 29
• You still need to interview the customers to get WHATs,
• Just in case a new need is emerging.
• Further, this is a great way to build good customer relations,
• Even if you already know all the answers,
• Since “sympathetic listening” is a powerful tool.
Nevertheless!
Voice of the Customer 30
Voice-Of-The-Customer – Part 2
How to Interview a Customer
© 2009 ~ Mark Polczynski
Voice of the Customer 31
The Customer Interview Process
The process of interviewing customers is the most important element of the overall Voice-of-the-Customer element of strategic technology planning.
A poor interview process:
• Generates bad input, making the rest of your efforts a waste of time,
• Can raise false expectations in your customer,
• Can drive customers away from you.
Conversely, a good interview process:
• Sets the correct direction for all other processes,
• Pro-actively clarifies expectations,
• Can bind you closely together with your customer (“partner”).
Psychological impact
Psychological impact
Voice of the Customer 32
Why we need a process:
• It is especially important for technologists to develop strong customer interview skills:
• Technology is an important potential source of solutions,
• And since technologists will be the ones often solving the problems,it is best for them to learn the problems directly from customers,
• Plus they can discover new needs that others don’t see,
• But in general, technologists may lack the “people skills” needed to conduct good interviews.
• They can easily create false expectations for customers.
• Establishing a systematic process for interviewing customers can help!
Voice of the Customer 33
Return to the “Perfect Mousetrap” example…
• You are a brand new engineer just hired by Acme Trap Company.
• Your company makes all kinds of animal traps.
• Your very first assignment is to design the next generation product line for your company.
• Your first task is to interview customers to determine WHAT features your new trap family will have.
• So, let’s get started!
Voice of the Customer 34
Based on the customer interviews, your job is to fill in these boxes:
Voice of the Customer 35
Acme Market Segmentation
You will focus on small animal(rat and mouse) kill traps for use inwarehouses where grain is stored,like in the movie...
Acme Trap Co. Large Animal Small Animal
Kill Traps Fur hunters Households,
food industry
Live traps Zoos,
naturalistsGrain
warehouses
Voice of the Customer 36
Our focus area:
Small animal kill traps for grain warehouses
So now we’re ready to do the customer interview…
Voice of the Customer 37
Customer interviews can be done in four steps:
3 1 2 4
Voice of the Customer 38
Customer Interview Process – Step 1.1
General Customer Needs -
For the field of use and application (market segment) being focused on, determine customer needs. Use the following guideline questions (add/change/delete as appropriate):
• Why? Why is this this product/service needed?
• What? What specifically will it be used for?
• Who? Who does/will/could use it?
• When? When does/will it be used?
• Where? Where will it be used?
• How? How will it be used? Make achecklist!
Voice of the Customer 39
Customer Interview Process – Step 1.2
Specific Customer Needs -
Determine what specific attributes that the product must have.
Typical areas of needs are:
• Performance – What exactly does the customer need it do?
• Quality/Reliability – How well must it do it?
• “User Interface” – How will the user interact with it?
• Cost – How sensitive to cost is it?
• Regulation – Is its use or design regulated in any way?
As you obtain input, use the “5 Whys” approach to drill down into needs.
Make achecklist!
Voice of the Customer 40
The 5 Whys Approach
• You ask a customer a question.
• They give you an answer.
• You ask: “Why do you need that?”
• They give you an answer.
• You ask: “Why do you need that?”
• They give you an answer.
• You ask “Why do you need that” five times.
• This gets you to the root cause.
Voice of the Customer 41
5-Whys is a general root cause problem solving tool…
Voice of the Customer 42
Like Pareto 80-20 rule, seems to describe how things work…
Voice of the Customer 43
Interview with Grain Warehouse Owner:
• You: So, how important is the reliability of the mouse trap?
• Customer: It is very important!
• You: Why is it so important?
• Customer: Because I don’t have any way to repair them.
• You: But they are simple to repair, so why don’t you fix them?
• Customer: Because I have nobody to repair them.
• You: But any idiot can repair them! Why don’t you have anyone?
• Customer: My warehouse is a totally automated “lights-out” warehouse, there ARE no people in the warehouse!
• You: So, who is going to take the dead rats out of the trap?
• Customer: Good question!
Voice of the Customer 44
Why the Five Whys Technique is Useful…
• For this example, by the fifth question we learned some important points:
• There’s no-one around to fix the traps, and
• There’s no-one around to remove the dead rats, and
• There’s no-one around to re-bait and re-set the traps!
• So, it looks like we need a trap:~ That doesn’t need to be manually re-baited and reset,~ That somehow gets rid of the dead rats.
• Sounds like a great topic for an ideation session?
Voice of the Customer 45
You now have enough information to complete the Step 1 box:
1
Now we can change these to:• Self-baiting• Self-setting• Self-cleaning
Voice of the Customer 46
What Next?
• When you complete this step, you may choose to continue with the following three steps.
• Continue the interview only if you can write short, clear customer need statements.
• Or, you may choose to conclude the interview to go home and document the results, and then return for a second interview.
• At the first interview, you may obtain very much information, or conflicting information, which makes it difficult to write the customer needs statements at the interview.
Voice of the Customer 47
Step 2 is to determine customer importance of each of the needs…
2
Voice of the Customer 48
Customer Interview Process – Step 2
Customer Need Importance -
• At this point, specific customer need statements have been prepared.
• Customer is asked to confirm need statements:
“Did I understand what you said?”
• Customer then ranks the needs in order from:
1 = most important, 2 = second most important, etc…
Voice of the Customer 49
Customer Need Importance:
• Customers may find it difficult to rank the importance of needs as first,
second, third….
• They may want to rank everything #1.
• And they may disagree among themselves as to which is most important.
• This part of the interview may take a lot of time!
• The customer will learn more about their own needs by doing this.
• In the end, these interviews can be just as helpful to customers as they
are to you.
• So, you should always give the results to your customer.
• But if at all possible, get a 1, 2, 3… ranked priority for needs!
Voice of the Customer 50
The Bubble Sort
Here’s a simple technique for forcing a 1, 2, 3… ranking on needs.
• For the first two needs on the list, ask the customer which is more important.
• If the second is more important, move it up one place,
• If not, leave both where they are.
• Repeat for the second and third needs, then the third and fourth, etc…
• After you get to the bottom, go through the list again.
• Repeat this until no need swap positions on the list.
Voice of the Customer 51
Customer need A
Customer need B
Customer need C
Customer need D
…
Customer need Z
Bubble Sort:
Swap?
Swap?
Swap?Repeatuntilnothing changes
Voice of the Customer 52
Now Step 3…
3
Voice of the Customer 53
Step 3 – Interactions Between Customer Needs
• Here, you compare all the needs as pairs,
• e.g.: kills quickly vs. easy to set.
• The question is: If I design the product to do X well, does that make it
harder or easier to do Y?
• e.g.: If I design a mousetrap that kills quickly, will that make it
easy to set, or hard to set?
• It will probably make it hard to set.
• So this is a negative interaction.
Voice of the Customer 54
It is important to do this step with the customer:
• When they see the interactions, they may choose to change the ranking of their needs (e.g., repeat the Bubble Sort).
• It helps to control expectations:
• If they see many negative correlations, they will know why the product will cost a lot and take a long time to design.
Voice of the Customer 55
It is important to do this step with the customer:
It will clarify assumptions about the product:
• You assume the trap has a spring in it,
• The larger the spring, the greater the killing force (good),
• But the larger the spring, the greater the setting force (bad).
• So, how can we do this without a spring?
• Negative correlations and the associated assumptions are great topics
for ideation sessions!
• By the way, identification of contradictions is a fundamental aspect of
TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving).
Voice of the Customer 56
Finally, Step 4:
4
Voice of the Customer 57
Step 4 – Customer Assessment
• Here, the customer compares your products with your competitor’s
products.
• Comparison question to the customer can be quite simple:
Compared to my competitor’s product/service, my offering is:
5 = Much better
4 = Better
3 = Similar
2 = Worse
1 = Much Worse
• If you don’t have an offering at the time of the interview,
- or of the customer has never seen your product,
- or if you don’t have any competitors,
- then you can’t do a direct comparison,
- so the comparison is made with customer’s ideal performance.
Voice of the Customer 58
You have existing productYou have no existing
product
Your competitor has
existing product
Your existing product vs.
their existing product
Their existing product vs.
ideal product
Your competitor has
no existing product
Your existing product vs.
ideal product
Relative need rank =
customer importance
However you do the comparison, the goal of customer assessment is:
Don’t waste resources improving things that the customer won’t pay for!
Voice of the Customer 59
Step 4 – Customer Assessment
• This is the first time in the interview that you talk about products.
• Here, the customer compares your products with your competitor’s products.
• This is about perceptions, not about reality.
• Don’t argue with your customer, just record their assessment!
• Yu are not selling your products at this meeting!
• You are learning what your customer thinks.
• If you want to change what your customer thinks, that is a differentmeeting.
• You will not be invited back if your interview turns into a sales call.
Voice of the Customer 60
Tip…
If your view of how your product measures up to customer expectations
differs from that of your customer, an appropriate response from you would
be:
“I have some test data that clearly shows that Acme mouse traps have a
setting force significantly lower that Ace traps. Can we set up a meeting
next week so that I can share that data with you?”
If you don’t have the data, you better get it.
If your trap is, in fact, inferior to your competitors, best to go on to the next
need ASAP!
Voice of the Customer 61
You have completed the customer interview!
3 1 2 4
Voice of the Customer 62
Voice of the Customer - Part 3
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) Phase 2 & 3
© 2009 ~ Mark Polczynski
Voice of the Customer 63
QFD Phase 2 – HOWs
Phase 1: WhatsPhase 2: HowsPhase 3: Whys
Voice of the Customer 64
6. Generate HOWs -
Measurable objectives
that cause the desired
effect (WHATs)
Not solutions!
Phase 2
Voice of the Customer 65
Details on Product
Characteristics
HOWs can be characterized as:
- Performance measurements
- Product functions
- Process steps
Examine
examples
of each
Most
common
application
Voice of the Customer 66
Using Performance Measurements to Identify “Hows”
For each customer need, define one or a few“technical performance measurements”, e.g.:
How would I actually measure the ability to meet this need?
Sett
ing
Forc
eEasy to Set
etc…et
c…
For each customer need
(WHAT)…
…identify the technical performance measure
(HOW).
Voice of the Customer 67
Details on Product
Characteristics
Preview:You are filling up these cellsin the WHAT/HOW matrix.
Voice of the Customer 68
Using Product/Process Functions to Identify “Hows”
You can use product/process functions instead of performance measurements, especially if the product/service concept already exists, e.g., upgrade to an existing product in the field.
Here’s an example…
Functional groups
QFD WHAT rowse.g. “File”
Functions
QFD HOW columns e.g. “New…”
Voice of the Customer 69
The Process QFD:
You can use QDF to design a process (manufacturing, business, etc…)
For process QFDs, the WHATS rows are what the process has to do.
Then the HOW columns are simply the process steps.
Performance targets can be quantified by factors such as:
~ Average process step cycle time,
~ Average processing cost per cycle,
~ Average defect rate at each process step.
Voice of the Customer 70
7. Determine CUSTOMER
performance targets -
How does your
customer want the
products to perform?
This is not what you think
is possible!
Phase 2
Voice of the Customer 71
8. Determine HOW-HOW
Correlations -
How do the HOWs
affect each other?
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Phase 2
Controls expectations!
- Cost
- Time
- Reliability
Voice of the Customer 72
9. Determine relative
Technical Difficulty -
Where do we
anticipate major
hurdles?
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Phase 2
Combinations of HOWS
Impact Technical DifficultyIf your customers specified
impossible Performance
Targets, note that now!
Voice of the Customer 73
Here Ends Phase 2 – HOWs Phase 2
Voice of the Customer 74
QFQ Phase 3 – WHYs
Phase 1: WhatsPhase 2: HowsPhase 3: Whys
Voice of the Customer 75
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Phase 3
Goal:Determine WHY we should choose to improve certain characteristics.
Goal:Determine WHY we should choose to improve certain characteristics.
Voice of the Customer 76
10. Determine WHAT-HOW
Relationships -
Rate how strongly
each factor leads to
each goal.: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Phase 3
Voice of the Customer 77
What-to-How Relationships - Detail
If we defined the columns of the QFD as Performance Measures,
and identify the performance measures based on each Customer Need,
then we automatically identify the primary What-to-How relationships…
Se
ttin
g F
orc
e
etc
…
Easy to Set
etc…
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Voice of the Customer 78
11. Calculate Relative
Importance -
Which HOWs should
we work on?
Phase 3
Qualisoft automatically
calculates based on
completed QFD matrix,
however…
Voice of the Customer 79
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Customer NeedCustomer
Importance
Your
Offering
Competitor
Offering
RELATIVE
Customer
Importance
Attracts mice 3 High High 1
Operates relaibly 5 Medium Low 3
Kills quickly 2 Low Medium 2
Easy to bait 3 Low Low 4
Easy to set 4 Medium High 6
Easy to dispose 5 High Medium 5
Relative importance ofproduct characteristic
depends onrelative importance
of all associatedcustomer needsAND strength of
association
Calculating Relative
Importance
Voice of the Customer 80
A major benefit of the QFD is the
ability to clearly identify
secondary interactions: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
“Useable baits” heavily impacts “Easy to bait”,
but also impacts “Attracts mice”
Voice of the Customer 81
Calculating Relative
Importance
High technical difficultydecreases
relative importance
Strong positive interactionincreases
relative importance
: str. pos.
: med. pos.
: wk. pos.
+ : med. neg.
# : str. neg.
Strong positive interactionincreases
relative importance
Voice of the Customer 82
End of Phase 3 –Whys
Phase 3
Voice of the Customer 83
Started by finding out
exactly what your
customer’s needs are...
…and ended up knowing
exactly what to work on
first, next, etc…
Voice of the Customer 84
QFD Extensions:
Technical Benchmarking
You can add aTechnical Benchmarking
row here
Similar toCustomer Assessment
Voice of the Customer 85
Luring Radius
Dead Mouse
Ratio MTBF
Customer Performance
Targets 20 feet 95% 50 actuations
Current Performance 15 feet 90% 40 actuations
Competitor
Performance 15 feet 95% 30 actuations
Technical Difficulty 3 3 2Relative Importance 2 1 3
We saw that relative customer importance depends on a comparativeanalysis of products…
Similarly, relative importance of product characteristics depends on a comparative analysis of performance…
Customer NeedCustomer
Importance
Your
Offering
Competitor
Offering
RELATIVE
Customer
Importance
Attracts mice 3 High High 1
Operates relaibly 5 Medium Low 3
Kills quickly 2 Low Medium 2
Easy to bait 3 Low Low 4
Easy to set 4 Medium High 6
Easy to dispose 5 High Medium 5
Voice of the Customer 86
Possible Application of QFD Nesting
We just did this QFD
So QFD approach can be used to documentthe end-to-end development process
Voice of the Customer 87
QFD
Nesting
First
Level
QFD
Second
Level
QFD
Voice of the Customer 88
What specific problems are solved by QFD?
• Poor understanding of customer needs -~ Solve the wrong problems, miss the big problems.
• Failure to strategically prioritize efforts -~ No time and money left to solve the most important problems.
• Willingness to take on unmanageable risks -~ Don’t know what we are committing to.
• Overreliance on formal specifications -~ Spec often misses “contextual cues”,
e.g., why are we building this in the first place?
• Fixing the wrong problems -~ Often times forced to ship product before all bugs are eliminated,
so did we fix enough of the most important bugs?
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