What are the best Lean product development methods for understanding customers' needs and preferences?

"Horses pull carts, they don't push them.' Putting 'Customer Deiscovery' after you've determined to develop a new product IS putting the cart before the horse. Customer discovery should be what gets companies thinking about a new product. For those already selling a product, engaging customers may be what determines there is a need for new functionality, improvements to user experience, performance upgrades and/or complimentary product offerings. For companies bringing a first product to market, customer discovery should have proved a new product was needed. You have to start with the customer and look for all of the reasons NOT to develop a new product. Product development should be a last resort!

In another life, we combined Value Curve Analysis with Pair-wise Comparison process to result in a prioritized/quantified prioritization of product preferences from customers, and how our current product stacks up against competitive product = new product development priorities (in one view). I called it a "mini-QFD" approach.

The description above is misleading… Customer Discovery is a step that should occur BEFORE you have a product. Ie, you are identifying customer pains and problems in hope of identifying a solution (product). If you start with a product, then you are likely simply looking for validation for whatever hunches led you to build the product in the first place - that is, your just drinking your own Kool Aid. Start by interviewing potential customers/users in a space and look for patterns that reveal common problems. Once you have a potential problem to solve, you can scale your discovery with surveys etc. Then consider very lightweight prototypes, no-code MVPs or even landing pages to test demand, value props, messaging, workflows, etc.

Customer Discovery is something where all of the innovative value chain starts. The need of the end user, understanding his pain points, & helping support & resolve his problems will result in a best in class innovative product development. For this we should have thorough market knowledge, we may have to get our hands dirty by visiting the customer sites, understand his real case issues & derive problem statements to kick start solution seeking which eventually leads to product/ service innovation.

Customer Feedback is very important which is an unavoidable part of continuous product improvisation which in turn will value add to existing & new Customers. This will also help differentiate our products from the others which will add value to our own position in the market. This extra effort has to be put in which leaves a different outlook & value for us within the customer crowd.

Customer co-creation or else close association with the End user for arriving at solutions that help resolve the problem faced by the end user which is vital to have a win win situation for both the parties. Majority of cases the situation is driven by the solutions which the customer seeks for his needs to meet an optimal condition of his operation of his product portfolio which runs his business & makes it profitable & drives his cash flow eventually. Open mindedness is vital from both the parties for such a collaboration to derive a sensible solution to resolve the problem optimally & cost effectively.

Adaption of any innovation by any "best idea" proposed to create a make over plan as a solution to the existing process to sustain existing bussiness integration & sustainability to newer environment strategy & technologies.

While this article centers around the customer, my experience shows that all stakeholders should be involved in the product development process as early on as possible. There's simply too much value in what other stakeholder needs might be to not have it part early opportunity discovery and validation. Product development is most often not a true linear process. As such, stakeholder discovery and validation play on ongoing part of the process. I refer to them as the white lines and road signs that keep us on the right path and headed in the right direction.