Listen, Watch, Ask, and Involve Your Customers

To create new value and innovate, it's important to understand the voice of the customer in addition to the voice of the product. Listening to customers on social media, paying close attention to their specific words and emotions, and watching them during routine activities can provide new insights. Asking open-ended questions and using laddering techniques can help get deeper insights into what customers really want. Finally, involving customers in the innovation process can lead to critical insights and skills to remove barriers or make concepts more feasible.