On a recent stay at the ANA Hotel in Tokyo, I was fascinated by this rather odd looking statue of a dog in the lobby. When I asked about it, the desk clerk said, “His name is Loy; he is the mascot of the hotel.”
“But, why are his ears so long?” I asked.
“That is so he can better hear the voice of the customer,” came the reply.
The idea of hearing the voice of the customer is nothing new. Practitioners of QFD (quality function deployment) will point to VOC (voice of the customer) as a pivotal part of the methodology. Yet, Jeffrey Phillips notes his surprise to hear the word empathy used at a recent innovation forum. Why was this surprising to Jeffrey?
Perhaps some insight is given by Daniel Scocco’s comments in “Know-how and Know-why”. Here, Daniel observes that the pace of change drives mangers to focus on the details of implementation and to forget why they are pursuing the change. Sadly, I suspect the real issue is a little deeper than that.
There is a fundamental difference between hearing and listening. Most of us hear quite well; fewer among us are good listeners. While many organizations invest vast quantities of time and money itemizing the CTQs (critical to quality factors) as they follow their methodology, in all too many cases, these same organizations fail to ask simple questions that would help them conceive and develop better products.
Why did the customer ask for this?
What is the customer really after?
What is job this product really performs for the customer?
How does this tie back to the fundamental value proposition of the product?
How does this align with the company objectives?
These are just a few of the questions that often don’t get asked. These are also critical questions, the answers to which must be understood if companies are to make sound judgments about product initiatives. Like Loy, companies must do a better job of listening to their clients. Make sure your innovation best practices reinforce this discipline.
Comments