Abstract:

Identifying unmet customer needs is critical for developing breakthrough new products and services. This paper discusses why current market research techniques, especially focus groups and one-on-one interviews, are incapable of identifying unmet user needs. The paper describes a new and proven approach to identify unmet needs. These unmet needs are those that customers are unable to articulate. The paper describes how these 'unarticulated' or 'latent' needs are identified through the use of latent class modeling.