Unfuzz the Fuzzy Front End

As business leaders, you already know that new product development (NPD) is the complete process of bringing a new product to market. And, if you’re familiar with NPD, you also know there’s this thing called the “fuzzy front end.” It is the first step in the process where one formulates a product concept and decides whether to invest resources to further develop the idea. The “fuzzy” part isn’t just limited to new product development though, it also applies to new service development and to the development of an entirely new business.

The front end of innovation is the greatest area of weakness for founders and developers because it’s chaotic, unpredictable, and unstructured. This “Phase 0” or “Pre-Project Activity Phase” may not be an expensive part of development, but it can chew up half of the development time. It’s also where key decisions are made that set the course for an entire project or business.  

IDEO aptly characterizes the first phase of innovation as follows:

Understand and observe the market, the customer, the technology, and the limitation of the problem. 

What does this have to do with you, a business head, developer, or budding entrepreneur? 

Everything.

Although unforgiving as it sounds, “don’t join the market until you know the market” is a pretty good mantra to keep in mind if you want to develop a product or service that will be well received by your target audience. (The fuzzy front end is where you figure out who those peeps are too! More on that later.)  

MARKET IMMERSION

My own front-end process is one of organized chaos. There’s nothing I dig more than wading in a pile of muck in search of the golden nugget; because, with perseverance, it always reveals itself. I find it effective to completely dive into a market by filling my brain with as many products, consumer insights, and market insights as possible—from as many sources and related (or unrelated) markets as possible. This is how one makes important connections out of the seemingly disconnected; how one tunes into emerging or dying trends; how one identifies market gaps or untapped consumer needs; and how one arrives at opportunities for differentiation to stand out from the pack.

The front end is where creativity and winning products and service offerings are born. This is why every successful business person has at least this one bit of advice for newbies: get to know the market and customer.  

Market Immersion = Market Research 

Identifying your potential competitors and evaluating their strategies is awesome market research. 

• Who are the players and what is their relative share?
• What are their strategies? How similar/dissimilar are they?
• What potential opportunities do they make available for you?

Purposefully dissecting existing products or services before you begin to develop your offering is awesome market research.

• What makes each competitive offering distinctive? Who is doing something standout? What is it? 
• Is the price reflective of the quality? Too high? Too low? 
• To whom is the product or service targeted? How do you know this? What tells you so?

Observing users/buyers engaging with the product or service is awesome market research. (Geeks like me call this “ethnography.”)

• List all the places where customers purchase or use the product or service. Go there. Observe.
• What are they doing?
• What are they reacting to?
• What emotions are they conveying?
• What questions are they asking?
• Take notes.
• Visit another location. Observe. Take notes.
• Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Asking potential customers what they think about your concept is awesome market research. 

• What thoughts or emotions come to mind when they think of the product/service category?
• What are some of the most frustrating things about the product/service?
• What’s their reaction to your concept? How important is it to have each feature? How new and different is it?  

Here’s a watchout: A sample size of one is not a sample. It’s a lone data point and not too terribly useful. Unless you have a large enough sample size, your findings cannot be projected to the larger universe. But what you learn from a few can provide useful directional insight to help you refine your offering and move forward on your path.

You’ll also want to be careful getting insights from friends and family. Yes! They think you’re cooler than a pig in mud. But that can be a problem too. Take advantage of their perspectives if they’re a close proxy for your target audience—just don’t rely solely on their feedback. Mix it up a bit. 

There’s nothing more powerful than integrating the customer voice into your development efforts. Reach out often to many different people throughout the entire process. Please, please, please don’t skip connecting with customers entirely because you fear your approach is not scientific. Science be damned—get out there and get connected! It’s the best thing you can do for your development effort and for your business. 

APPLYING THE INSIGHTS

Of course, all your research and discovery work is meaningless unless you apply it to your project or opportunity. You’ll want to walk away from the fuzzy front end with a clearer picture of your target customer. In addition to the standard demographics (or industry factoids for B2B), you’re going to want to dig deeper—detailing out characteristics of how they work, live, and play, and defining their values, beliefs, perceptions, and aspirations. It can be helpful to create a visual collage of your customer using pictures and words cut out from magazines. This is a scrappy approach to persona development, but it brings the customer to life with minimal work effort. (And your kids will think your artwork is neat.)

Your research efforts will also help you define your product or service requirements, which is essential to moving on to the next step in development. What design best supports your customer’s needs and desired outcomes? What are the quality considerations to ensure expectations are met? Do you have any unique requirements?

You can make all these decisions sporadically and haphazardly. But wouldn’t you rather make the decisions purposefully and increase your chances of creating a knock-out market winner? Whatever industry you are pursuing, author Stephen King sums up the importance of doing your homework quite well: 

"I am always chilled and astonished by would-be publishers/writers who ask me for advice and admit, quite blithely, that they ‘don’t have time to read.’ This is like a guy starting up Mount Everest saying that he didn’t have time to buy any rope or pitons.”

Just do the homework. You’ll be much happier with the result if you do. And who knows? You may find not just a breakthrough opportunity awaiting but new joy as well.

Interested in applying proven tools to help you Create Products and Services that Customers Love? Join my workshop from 9 to 10 am March 21 at COCO Minneapolis. Register Here.