Over the last decade or so, the product development process has shifted from being reactive to proactive. Previously, creatives simply brainstormed and threw ideas around. At that time, harnessing employees as idea machines was very much in vogue. Legions of companies followed the book, “Your Creative Power” published in 1948 by Alex Osborn, a partner …
Read MoreCo-creation has become the new business imperative in response to the rise of ad-blocking technologies and the growing fatigue with ad bombardment on social media. There has been a tectonic shift from marketing to versus marketing with. It’s all about trust. By taking the time to create content that consumers want to see, you are …
Read MoreThe most successful companies know exactly what their customers are looking for. It can be difficult, however, to know exactly what consumers want from a product, down to the smallest detail. You don’t have to be a mind-reader, but you should learn a little bit more about co-creation and how to make it work for …
Read MoreGeneration Z makes up 25% of the US population and controls $143B in direct purchasing power. By 2020, Gen Z will represent 40% of all buyers. As a whole, this is the most advanced group of teenagers in history, yet unlike any generation before them, they are more of a collection of individuals and small …
Read MoreWhat matters more: money or talent? It’s an age-old question that most business owners have asked themselves during their journey. Both of these aspects help advance business and product development, of course, but neither is the single greatest asset a company can have. So, what is the greatest asset? Customer input, hands down. Without it, …
Read MoreToday, in this digital era of analytics with the ability to measure anything and everything, companies who track customer behaviors and analyze them to discover actionable insights have an edge over their competitors. Everyone knows the saying, “the customer is always right” and one thing that we can be sure of is that customers are …
Read MoreSince the turn of the current century, product developers have increasingly looked to new processes to improve the likelihood of a successful launch. Some of these upstream processes include market research, which taps into everything from geographics and demographics to psychographics. Other midstream processes include co-creation and open innovation to spark the design of new …
Read MoreIBM has one. So does SAS. Salesforce.com does, too. Spotfire helps companies build them. KL Communications has built their own. What are “customer intelligence platforms” and why is everybody talking about them? They are the most widely adopted and inherently useful system for generating actionable insights around new product development and corporate strategy. Specifically, Allsight, …
Read MoreIn the past, product innovation process, particularly for consumer products, was relatively straightforward and standardized across all companies. At that time, companies developed first-of-their-kind products. As a result, innovation was centered around simply what the product did and did not emphasize how it functioned. Companies identified a need, generated a manufacturing plan, rolled it out …
Read MoreIt’s not easy being the new business on the block. Today’s global economy and marketplace afford new businesses as many opportunities as it does challenges. To be successful now, businesses require a thorough understanding of the marketplace. Specifically, their target customer – who they are, as well as how and why they buy. Online research …
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