The Virtual Customer
Communication and information technologies are adding new capabilities for rapid and inexpensive customer input to all stages of the product development (PD) process. In this article we review six web-based methods of customer input as examples of the improved Internet capabilities of communicati...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Technical Report |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
2003
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/3772 |
| _version_ | 1811081778870353920 |
|---|---|
| author | Hauser, John Dahan, Ely |
| author_facet | Hauser, John Dahan, Ely |
| author_sort | Hauser, John |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Communication and information technologies are adding new capabilities for rapid and
inexpensive customer input to all stages of the product development (PD) process. In this article
we review six web-based methods of customer input as examples of the improved Internet capabilities
of communication, conceptualization, and computation. For each method we give examples
of user-interfaces, initial applications, and validity tests. We critique the applicability of the
methods for use in the various stages of PD and discuss how they complement existing methods.
For example, during the fuzzy front end of PD the information pump enables customers
to interact with each other in a web-based game that provides incentives for truth-telling and
thinking hard, thus providing new ways for customers to verbalize the product features that are
important to them. Fast polyhedral adaptive conjoint estimation enables PD teams to screen larger
numbers of product features inexpensively to identify and measure the importance of the
most promising features for further development. Meanwhile, interactive web-based conjoint
analysis interfaces are moving this proven set of methods to the web while exploiting new capabilities
to present products, features, product use, and marketing elements in streaming multimedia
representations. User design exploits the interactivity of the web to enable users to design
their own virtual products thus enabling the PD team to understand complex feature interactions
and enabling customers to learn their own preferences for new products. These methods can be
valuable for identifying opportunities, improving the design and engineering of products, and
testing ideas and concepts much earlier in the process when less time and money is at risk. As
products move toward pretesting and testing, virtual concept testing on the web enables PD
teams to test concepts without actually building the product. Further, by combining virtual concepts
and the ability of customers to interact with one another in a stock-market-like game, securities
trading of concepts provides a novel way to identify winning concepts.
Prototypes of all six methods are available and have been tested with real products and
real customers. These tests demonstrate reliability for web-based conjoint analysis, polyhedral
methods, virtual concept testing, and stock-market-like trading; external validity for web-based
conjoint analysis and polyhedral methods; and consistency for web-based conjoint analysis vs.
user design. We report on these tests, commercial applications, and other evaluations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:52:20Z |
| format | Technical Report |
| id | mit-1721.1/3772 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:52:20Z |
| publishDate | 2003 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/37722019-04-12T08:25:03Z The Virtual Customer Hauser, John Dahan, Ely information technologies customer input product development web-based conceptualization computation user-interfaces fuzzy front end validity tests information pump web-based game product features Fast polyhedral adaptive conjoint estimation conjoint analysis products features marketing User design virtual products virtual concept testing securities trading of concepts Prototypes web-based conjoint analysis stock-market-like Communication and information technologies are adding new capabilities for rapid and inexpensive customer input to all stages of the product development (PD) process. In this article we review six web-based methods of customer input as examples of the improved Internet capabilities of communication, conceptualization, and computation. For each method we give examples of user-interfaces, initial applications, and validity tests. We critique the applicability of the methods for use in the various stages of PD and discuss how they complement existing methods. For example, during the fuzzy front end of PD the information pump enables customers to interact with each other in a web-based game that provides incentives for truth-telling and thinking hard, thus providing new ways for customers to verbalize the product features that are important to them. Fast polyhedral adaptive conjoint estimation enables PD teams to screen larger numbers of product features inexpensively to identify and measure the importance of the most promising features for further development. Meanwhile, interactive web-based conjoint analysis interfaces are moving this proven set of methods to the web while exploiting new capabilities to present products, features, product use, and marketing elements in streaming multimedia representations. User design exploits the interactivity of the web to enable users to design their own virtual products thus enabling the PD team to understand complex feature interactions and enabling customers to learn their own preferences for new products. These methods can be valuable for identifying opportunities, improving the design and engineering of products, and testing ideas and concepts much earlier in the process when less time and money is at risk. As products move toward pretesting and testing, virtual concept testing on the web enables PD teams to test concepts without actually building the product. Further, by combining virtual concepts and the ability of customers to interact with one another in a stock-market-like game, securities trading of concepts provides a novel way to identify winning concepts. Prototypes of all six methods are available and have been tested with real products and real customers. These tests demonstrate reliability for web-based conjoint analysis, polyhedral methods, virtual concept testing, and stock-market-like trading; external validity for web-based conjoint analysis and polyhedral methods; and consistency for web-based conjoint analysis vs. user design. We report on these tests, commercial applications, and other evaluations. Center for Innovation in Product Development and the MIT Center for eBusiness 2003-12-04T18:30:27Z 2003-12-04T18:30:27Z 2001-12 Technical Report http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/3772 en_US 1688492 bytes application/pdf application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | information technologies customer input product development web-based conceptualization computation user-interfaces fuzzy front end validity tests information pump web-based game product features Fast polyhedral adaptive conjoint estimation conjoint analysis products features marketing User design virtual products virtual concept testing securities trading of concepts Prototypes web-based conjoint analysis stock-market-like Hauser, John Dahan, Ely The Virtual Customer |
| title | The Virtual Customer |
| title_full | The Virtual Customer |
| title_fullStr | The Virtual Customer |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Virtual Customer |
| title_short | The Virtual Customer |
| title_sort | virtual customer |
| topic | information technologies customer input product development web-based conceptualization computation user-interfaces fuzzy front end validity tests information pump web-based game product features Fast polyhedral adaptive conjoint estimation conjoint analysis products features marketing User design virtual products virtual concept testing securities trading of concepts Prototypes web-based conjoint analysis stock-market-like |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/3772 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hauserjohn thevirtualcustomer AT dahanely thevirtualcustomer AT hauserjohn virtualcustomer AT dahanely virtualcustomer |