Good products respond to consumer demands. Great products respond to consumer needs. The problem with consumer needs is that they generally can’t be revealed in quick and easy focus groups and surveys (these tend to reveal demands).Humans are usually unconscious of their own needs, because we tend to cope, and in coping forget that we have unmet needs. Revealing needs requires ethnographic research. The use of ethnographic research in product design is increasingly popular (see this article). Needfinding, as taught at Stanford, has equipped me to carry out such research to uncover consumer needs.
Ethnographic research helped Huggies get out of the mindset that diapers were sanitary napkins, and into the mindset that diapers were babies’ clothing. The research also revealed that parents felt disappointed and embarrassed if their kids were in diapers for a long time. With these insights, Huggies developed Pull-Ups Training Pants, which became a runaway success. The product satisfied parents’ emotional need to have their children progress. “Is your kid still in diapers?” “No, he’s in pull-ups now” (Point Forward Inc.)