Lessons Learned

Through the course and the group project I believe I have gained a better understanding on the importance of flexibility in obtaining customer insight. In previous and other experiences, I learned to obtain customer insights through research methodologies such as surveys and interviews, and to conclude from the collected data to make inferences and assumptions on the insights from this type of information. Although this method is not necessary incorrect, through the group project and course, I learned so much more about gaining insight. For example, although choosing a target segment for research is important, breaking down a segment based on a room of the house was a great way to really focus on a specific segment. When our group picked the bedroom of the house but decided to be a little bit more creative and turned it into a baby room, we started to capture a completely different market. Focusing on the different elements and stereotypes of what the baby room implied for our segment formed a new experience for us in gaining insight. We had to break down the basic demographics of a stereotypical market for the baby room but we quickly realized and learned we had a plethora of segments to choose from. We learned so much about the different characteristics of our segment through our research methods such as interviews but also learned how to use what we learned to narrow the segment for our project. In addition our insights came from other research methods such as secondary research, shop along, and photos from our contacts. I learned that gaining insights doesn’t necessary mean to gain a statistical analysis on the data from your segment. Instead insights can come from a variety of ways such as key interviews and learning about what the information is telling you. Additionally the insights can come for the commonality in the research or knowledge we gain while using secondary resources such as the internet to learn more about purchase behaviors or current availability of products for our segment. The project and course helped me to open my eyes on developing insights from many different resources and ways that may not necessarily logical or clear cut as data analysis.

Furthermore, another key concept I learned throughout the course and group project is the process of product development. I learned about the different ways to develop a product, either by working with a product idea and finding customer insights for the product or gaining insights from customers and creating a product for the insights. I believed that most products were developed first and then matched to research and tested to the insights that “fitted” the idea. However, as the course, this project, and even the guest speakers pointed out, product ideas can also be developed from insights. One of our guest speakers even talked about a process that resembles a filter in that you filter your product idea through a process that started with gaining customer insights. Likewise, one of the key examples in learning this “lesson” was through our group project. When our group first started to brainstorm about a product idea, we initially came up with a product for a segment to provide a service on the web to simplify the design process for a baby room for the parent. In the beginning the group was very excited about the great idea but after more thought we realize that our research and insights did not match up with the product idea. As a group we begin to discuss if this idea would be appropriate even though we did not have the insight to match up with the product other than our secondary research. Although as a group ultimately we developed another product that matched our insights, we went through many discussions about the two products before making decisions about the final product. However I believe through the different product ideas we were able to learn a lesson in the process of developing a product idea. I realized that many products have been successful regardless of how the product idea came into the market, but going through the process of building a product idea from customer insights made me understand some of the difficulty and conflicts industries and companies can have when developing products.

Some of the emotional reactions I have had along the way of working on the project and throughout this course are enjoyment and challenging. I believe working with my teammates on the project was enjoyable because of the different elements of the projects and the people who made up my group. The project had many different elements that gave me many opportunities to learn not only about customer insights and product idea development but working in a semester long project. Overall the project allowed me to take certain concepts from the course and apply them to a hands-on experience. The updates of the different phases from the teams were great because it allowed the groups to share information and learn from each other as well. The focus on the semester project through lectures and guest speakers also made it an enjoyable experience. The lectures were great because they provided the background and important information for us to apply to the project; they were filled with great real-world examples from the articles of companies and products that related to the lecture topic. In addition, the diversity of my group members in their experiences and knowledge created an enjoyable experience as well. I believe the creativity of our project from our choice of segment to the final product came from all of our ideas and suggestions. On the other hand, the challenging aspect came from working on a project with concepts and lessons I have never worked with before. There were times when all of my group members really knew what to do for the project and other time where we had to take the update home and think about it a little bit more. Also the diversity of my group brought challenges in that we had so many great ideas and suggestions for the project. Our experiences in different classes and from different work experiences really helped to provide a wide range of ideas and thoughts for the project. However the challenging emotion was great because it allowed me to learn so much about customer insights and working on the project itself as well.