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Customer Observation as a Source of Latent Customer Needs and Radical New Ideas for Product-Service Systems

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Engineering Asset Management 2011

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

Abstract

The importance of maintaining close contact with customers and utilizing customer-based information has been emphasized in the industrial service and product-service systems (PSS) literature. A profound understanding of the customer’s business and production environment is needed for successful PSS development. The conventional methods for gathering information about customers (surveys, feedback and interviews) typically result in incremental improvements and information about existing products and services. The focus of this paper is on how the information and ideas from customer contacts can be better captured to enable radical improvements. A framework for capturing the customer ideas is presented. The framework is based on customer observation methodology, entrepreneurial opportunity recognition model, front end of innovation literature as well as the experiences of a case study and interviews.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES) for the financial support that made this study possible. We also wish to thank the interviewed companies and especially the case company Fastems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, PO Box 1300, FI-33101, Tampere, Finland

    J. Hanski, M. Reunanen & S. Kunttu

  2. Fastems Oy Ab, Tuotekatu 4, FI-33840, Tampere, Finland

    E. Karppi, M. Lintala & H. Nieminen

Authors
  1. J. Hanski
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  2. M. Reunanen
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  3. S. Kunttu
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  4. E. Karppi
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  5. M. Lintala
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  6. H. Nieminen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Hanski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Mechanical, Industrial & Nuclear Engineering (MINE), University of Cincinnati College of Engineering, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Jay Lee

  2. University of Michigan Dept. Mechanical Engineering, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Jun Ni

  3. Missouri University of Technology, Rolla, USA

    Jagnathan Sarangapani

  4. Management (CIEAM), Queensland University of Technology Centre for Integrated Engineering Asset, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Joseph Mathew

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag London

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Hanski, J., Reunanen, M., Kunttu, S., Karppi, E., Lintala, M., Nieminen, H. (2014). Customer Observation as a Source of Latent Customer Needs and Radical New Ideas for Product-Service Systems. In: Lee, J., Ni, J., Sarangapani, J., Mathew, J. (eds) Engineering Asset Management 2011. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4993-4_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4993-4_35

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4992-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4993-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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