PERFORMING QFD STEP BY STEP

Gather Customer Needs

1. Plan collection of customer needs. What sources of information will be used? Consider customer requirement documents, requests for proposals, requests for quotations, contracts, customer specification documents, customer meetings/interviews, focus groups/clinics, user groups, surveys, observation, suggestions, and feedback from the field. Consider both current customers as well as potential customers. Pay particular attention to lead customers as they are a better indicator of future needs. Plan who will perform the data collection activities and when these activities can take place. Schedule activities such as meetings, focus groups, surveys, etc.
   
   
2. Prepare for collection of customer needs. Identify required information. Prepare agendas, list of questions, survey forms, focus group/user meeting presentations.
   
   
3. Determine customer needs or requirements using the mechanisms described in step 1. Document these needs. Consider recording any meetings. During customer meetings or focus groups, ask "why" to understand needs and determine root needs. Consider spoken needs and unspoken needs. Extract statements of needs from documents. Summarize surveys and other data. Use techniques such as ranking, rating, paired comparisons, or conjoint analysis to determine importance of customer needs. Gather customer needs from other sources such as customer requirement documents, requests for proposals, requests for quotations, contracts, customer specification documents, customer meetings/interviews, focus groups, product clinics, surveys, observation, suggestions, and feedback from the field.
   
   
4. Use affinity diagrams to organize customer needs. Consolidate similar needs and restate. Organize needs into categories. Breakdown general customer needs into more specific needs by probing what is needed. Maintain dictionary of original meanings to avoid misinterpretation. Use function analysis to identify key unspoken, but expected needs.
   
   
5. Once needs are summarized, consider whether to get further customer feedback on priorities. Undertake meetings, surveys, focus groups, etc. to get customer priorities. State customer priorities using a 1 to 5 rating. Use ranking techniques and paired comparisons to develop priorities.