Are unmet needs an oxymoron?

Unsettling thoughts in the shower this morning... What exactly is an unmet need, and why are so many people / companies fixated on satisfying them?

Everybody talks about helping companies uncover their customers' unmet needs. I've been guilty of it myself. The term has become commonplace across many industries as well as across multiple disciplines. As far as I know, no one has ever questioned it's meaning, so I should probably leave well enough alone.

For some reason, I couldn't shake this question while in the shower this morning. When you think about it, we all have needs. Sometimes we can buy a product or service that alleviates those needs, at which time the need (by definition) goes away. I guess it is safe to say that need has been satisfied. Does that make it a "met need"? Once a need has been met, it is no longer a need...

When we help companies focus on innovation for their consumers, we look for opportunity space by focusing on their likes, dislikes, processes, and attitudes. But how do we distinguish between "unmet needs" and regular needs?

Literally speaking, I'm thinking the phrase "unmet needs" is like a double negative used in a sentence (E.g. "I won't not be there tomorrow" means "I will be there"). If that is the case, then does unmet need literally mean there is no need?

I'm going to do two things moving forward. First, I'm going to start focusing only on consumer needs (not unmet needs). Second, I'm going to try to think of more interesting topics in the shower...

The world's best garden tools

I love my job. I get to work with people all over the country, and help them develop new product and service ideas based upon the unmet needs of consumers that we study. One of the most rewarding parts of my job however, is when we see ideas that we've helped to generate, come to life.

This last weekend I decided to put a garden in my back yard. Since this would be my first garden since my youth, I decided to start "small", a mere 30' wide by 120' long. Okay, it didn't seem that big until I started to plant the thing. Having spent all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon in the thing, I have now planted about 1/3 of what I've bought to go into it. My hands are raw, my back is sore, and I'm somewhat sunburned... but as they say, it's a good kind of pain.

I decided to do this (in part) because of a project we did for Ames True Temper a year ago dealing with Gardening Enthusiasts. We spent hours watching people as they landscaped their yards and planted food for their families. We worked with Master Gardeners to discover the unmet needs that they had with their existing tools. Ultimately, we came up with a new line of tools, focused on these experts. The tools are now on the market, Ames sent me a set a few weeks ago, so... I had to start a garden.

It's one thing to watch other people use products, but its much cooler to use good products yourself. The garden rake they launched has a circular "steering wheel" handle that surrounds the shaft. It is a great feature for really pulling. As intuitive as this is, it makes me wonder why no one has done it before.

The material on these handles is a form of plastic, with a softer rubber molded in where your hands go. In spite of the hot days, these things felt good, with no slippage or unwanted twisting.

When we started this project with Ames, I was skeptical that anyone could really make a "better shovel" (or any other garden tool for that matter). After all, after the lever, it's probably the oldest tool known to man. But I'll be darned if we (collectively) didn't pull it off.

Hopefully I'll feel as good about these tools after I get the remaining 2/3 of the garden planted. If only they could do something about the aching joints and the sunburn...

The power of virginity

Remember your first time? You could barely wait for the day to arrive. Then you went to pick it up and bring it home. You almost drooled as you carefully took off the layers to get your hands on it...

Okay, so maybe you weren't quite that passionate to use your new product, but there was still an anticipation. It doesn't matter if it's a new cell phone or a washing machine. You fully expected that your life would improve because of your wise purchase.

And then you used it. Maybe you read the instruction manual, but probably you didn't. You thought some features were a bit confusing, but you eventually figured them out. You may have assembled it wrong initially, but even that got corrected.

Ah, to be a "first-timer" again. The first time we encounter anything we do so with an inquisitive mind and an assessing disposition. We immediately evaluate the product or experience for what it truly is. If asked (or observed) at that moment we could provide all types of valuable feedback to the provider in terms of suggestions or improvements. But how quickly that fades. Before long, we forget those ideas and compensate for the shortcomings in the design. Ask us three months later, and our thoughts are far less fertile.

How are you capturing your consumers' first experience with your product or service? It really is a great thing to ask someone while their "first time" is still fresh in their mind.

Switch sides of the bed

I despise routine. From experience I realize that I'm probably in the minority on this issue but it is true. Routine is the antithesis of creativity & innovation. As soon as we fall into a routine, we quit thinking about the processes that we live by and slip into auto-pilot. Once there, we no longer seek out ideas that could improve our lives.

A very simple example of this is to switch sides of the bed with your partner (this is far less impactful if you sleep alone). This simple act will generate an amazing array of new thoughts and experiences. The way that you turn and lay will be different. You will interact with your partner in a new and different way. And believe it or not, this simple act will cause your brain to process the world around you differently for a short while.

It's not always comfortable to make a change such as this. You might in fact find it hard to fall asleep the first night in this "foreign" position. But your awareness of the situation will soar. And that gets your mind working in a very positive way. You may find yourself being able to work through problems that have perplexed you all day (either while lying awake or in your dream state). In the morning, your routine will be varied causing you to start "thinking" much sooner than is typical.

Awareness is huge step toward change and creativity. Change sides of the bed. Get out of auto-pilot. See what the next day brings...

Newton's First Law of... Human Behavior?

You ever notice that even when companies express a strong desire for change, their actual efforts cause them to remain where they are? A friend of mine is in the consumer durables segment, but was talking to an executive at a healthcare company. The executive recognized a talent in skill set in my friend that his company was lacking. So he encouraged him to send in a resume.

My friend did just that, but somehow the resume was intercepted by Human Resources, who proceeded to tell him that they are not interested because he has... you guessed it; no experience in the health care industry.

How many products and services have been launched only to fail because of the same basic reason. Research clearly shows there's a need, people express an interest, even a willingness to buy. However, the offering fails in the marketplace because people have no experience with it.

Newton's first law of motion states that "an item that is at rest will remain at rest until an outside force acts upon it". It seems that this profound law is just as relative to human behavior as it is to items in the physical world. Perhaps it could be restated as "People will continue on with their current behaviors until an outside force drives them to change". That makes it hard to launch something new (or enter a new career field) in a successful manner.

Researching a new product or service (or casually talking to an executive friend at an outside company) poses people with a theoretical outside force, so the answer they give is a theoretical response at best. The same people that were positive at the "theory", are often reluctant to adapt when faced with the reality of the offering.

Something to keep in mind the next time your chasing a "sure fire" lead or opportunity. What looks certain in theory, must overcome the concept of inertia in reality, and that takes force. Hmmm....

A blog with no photo...

Okay I'm frustrated. All of my photos disappeared from my Blog. I've been using Blogo as an editor, then uploading to blogspot for posting. It worked seamlessly for several days, but now there's chaos. Google's massive integration of multiple services seems to be the culprit. Web forums are quickly filling with people with similar frustrations, all thinking it's their unique issue. Looks like the problem may reside with Picassa, Google's photo sharing site. Now, I don't really want or need to use Picassa, I'd be happy just uploading photos from my phone or hard drive, but is that an option??? NO! All uploaded photos automatically go into a library at Picassa where they are accessed by the blog. Hmmm. I'm sure there's some advantage there that I'm not seeing. But in the meantime, my frustration is mounting.

Was Google's intent to satisfy unmet needs of blog writers? Or was it merely an avenue to get us hooked on more of their proprietary software applications?

There's no question that Google has become a part of our everyday life... But is this an instance where they've gone too far? Just try to get technical support on something like this that crosses so many applications... I wonder how the Amish blog?

You Gotta Love it

Seeking Conformity - Part II

I'm still on vacation, and played another round of golf yesterday. I used my brother's clubs since I am staying at his house. He has much nicer (and much newer) clubs than I have, so any inadequacy that I had cannot be blamed on that. The course was in fantastic shape, which removed another excuse. Being a private course on a weekday, there were very few groups playing, so I can't even say that we were being rushed or pressured. And yet, I still played pathetically.

It struck me afterwards that there is another type of conformity that we all aspire too and that is mastery. It doesn't matter what we're doing, be it work or play, we all have an image of what "should be" and we measure shortcomings against it. There's nothing wrong with that, in fact it's what drives us toward continuous improvement.

But that led me to think about the way we research common products and develop ideas for new ones. Had an observational researcher followed me around the course yesterday, he would have made notes about my unmet needs. E.g. "While Jerry has a lot of power off the tee, he struggles with consistent direction", or "Jerry is unable to read some of the intricacies of the sloping greens".

The researcher might even take these discovered unmet needs back into an ideation session to generate solutions. "Let's make a club that you can't slice", or "Let's put a chip into the putter that can automatically read the curvature of the green to allow for more accurate putting".

Let's imagine further that they could actually produce such products. Would that be a good idea? If suddenly I could record scores like Tiger Woods, that might be exciting for a fleeting moment, but what lasting value would that have? In fact, if such clubs were allowed by the PGA, it would realistically kill the sport. Conforming to Tiger's ability without working for it takes away any pleasure that it would bring. I would much rather learn to get better with the equipment I have (or that I'm borrowing) than to have some that corrects everything for me. I only appreciate my great shots when they stand in stark contrast to my bad ones.

What about the products you make or use? Are all unmet needs equal? How do you distinguish between those that will enhance the life of a person, and those that will ultimately disappoint? Should our goal be to make everyone equally proficient with everything they use?

It's got me thinking...

Seeking Conformity?

I'm on vacation this week. Went out golfing the other day playing on a new course. Now, I haven't really played since last year, so I'm pretty rusty (not that I never get really... "un-rusty, at least at golf). We got paired up with another twosome for our round. They seemed nice enough; members of the club where we were playing.

The first few holes went okay. The other twosome was playing much better than we were which was not surprising. By the time we got to the 6th hole, my game fell apart. I suddenly looked like I had never swung a club before. That is not all that surprising for my game. But what I noticed really surprised me. On the same hole, the other three players all crumbled as well. As a group we put 6 balls in the lake, topped numerous shots and almost hit each other twice. One guy from the other group quit about half-way to the hole saying he'd never played so badly...

It appeared that my collapse spread broadly and quickly. For that hole, we found a group "norm", that unfortunately was the lowest common denominator (my ability).

People tend to conform with the group that they are in. Play golf with people much better than yourself, and you're likely to play beyond your abilities. Play with people much worse and you're likely to fall apart.

I can't help but think that this same trend is true when studying consumers. Talk to them one at a time in their natural environment, and you're likely to see the real person. Bring them into a group and talk to them all at once, and you will inevitably see the subconscious conforming of people into the group's norm. Which is it that you want to learn, an individual's needs and opportunities, or the lowest common denominator of the group?

An April Fools Fable

Once upon a time, in a land not too far from your own was a Company. This company made Flurbigs, a product that was used by many people in the land. They had made Flurbigs for years and years, and everyone respected them for their high quality and consistency of performance.

One day, another company came into town. They began to make Sturbigs, which to the people of the land looked a lot like Flurbligs except that they were cheaper and came in more colors. It wasn't long before most people were switching from their Flurbig to a Sturbig.

The owner of the Flurbig Company pulled together his wisest people and challenged them to come up with a new product that would make them reign supreme once again. He even gave them a head start by providing them with some ideas that he already had for the new product. The newly formed team sat in a room and brainstormed ways they could take his ideas and combine them with their own to make a better Flurbig. They worked on the premise that there are no bad ideas, so the sky was the limit for this team. After days of collaboration they were ready to bring forth their new & improved Flurbig. It had not one, but two more speeds than the Sturbig. It weighed 5% less and came in three new colors! And, most importantly, they pulled out all of their creative stops and actually added a cupholder!!!

The owner knew that they couldn't go to market without first testing the market acceptance. So they gathered their friends and family and invited them into the office where they could get some impartial feedback. Before long they had concrete answers to such questions as, "Wouldn't you rather have a product with 2 more speeds?" and "If you could choose between a product with a cupholder and without, which would you choose?".

Much to their surprise, not only did they get clear direction for this product, but the people they brought in had numerous ideas for bold new products in the future. Based on their findings, they were ready to not only launch the new Flurbig II, but now had a pipeline full of great ideas to grow the company moving forward.

Having spent all of their product launch money on research, they were forced to quietly place the product on retail shelves. They couldn't really advertise, or do any type of promotional work. They did however make sure that every new feature was called out in bold print on each side of the package. Because of their breakthrough new design, they decided to charge 20% more than the Sturbig did.

When the people of the land saw the Flurbig II at the store, they immediately saw the superiority of this bold new product and bought up everyone that was available.

The Sturbig company knew they had been outdone, and realized they had no further reason to exist in this land. They quietly packed up their plant, and moved to a far away place, never to be seen again.

Everyone in the land celebrated. There was dancing in the streets. The future was brighter than ever before. And the Company and the people of the land lived happily ever after.

So, you tell me... silly fable? or scary reality of many companies' strategies?