Product Opportunity
Question:
How do you know when you have a new product opportunity?
Answer:
Observations can often suggest that new product opportunities are lurking in the collected data. Consumers themselves are not always conscious of what new product innovations would actually address their own wants and needs. When questioned directly about their wants and needs, consumers tend to offer compacent clichés - lower price, more per package, different colors - that hardly yield conceptual breakthroughs and revolutionary innovations.
When our enthographers pay close attention to consumers while the latter are using a product, we can observe the stages through which respondents go from intention to satisfaction. The steps consumers go through from beginning to end usually reveal clues to expectations, fears, doubts, and wishes.
Consumers also make ‘mistakes’. They usually occur when the product does not make itself instantly understandable, when users’ stock of knowledge creates contradictory expectations, or when their mental images of the ways things are supposed to work are violated by product operation. Watching these usually provides fuel for new product adaptation and innovation. When commercially available products do not perform as expected or do not provide desired benefits, consumers adapt on their own by combining products. When our ethnographers see this happening, we typically sense an opportunity for line extensions and product innovations.
