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Today we will be talking about the case study method.

And let me remind you that this is an optional session for you.

If you feel that you have an understanding of how to both analyze cases as

well as write up the summaries of cases, then you would not have to use this.

But I highly recommend that you review the material here to prepare you for

the cases that we will be doing in this specialization.

The case study method is a method that's used to better understand

business problems.

So if we look at it in the continuum of learning types of exercises, it's

beyond just understanding what you read or through the lectures that you receive.

But the cases give you a first hand view of previous companies

that have experienced business issues, in our case research issues,

that to better understand how to make decisions that relates to what

understanding you need to move forward with new product development.

So cases are just one of the things that we will be using in this specialization

to both help you better understand material.

But also to make decisions about the various marketing research techniques or

product development tools that we will discuss throughout the specialization.

Well, in addition to that, we will have both exercises and experiential projects

to further help you understand those tools by applying those tools

in actual development of products and services that you may be interested in.

So why do we use the case study method?

Well, there's a number of reasons that we might use it.

But one of the primary reasons that we use it is to better understand or

help managers to better understand how to learn from the problems that they

experience or other managers experience and how to resolve those problems.

In addition to that, you do that not by just reading the material,

but asking the right questions to determine the situation and

what factors may impact that situation.

We further help you by adding discussion questions presented both in the case and

presented to you that allow you to discuss it with your other classmates.

To help focus you on certain aspects of the case

that may be more important than others.

And then finally, it's to make you ask yourself.

What truly are the problems that you as a manager or

that you as an individual may be having when you're developing a product?

And help you to resolve that situation by discussing

the factors that impact the problem, but also potential solutions.

So the case method is a long held methodology that's been used

to help students better understand business situations.

So how do we prepare a case?

Now, there are different ways in which you would prepare the case.

What we'll talk about here is how to best prepare the cases

that you'll experience in this specialization.

Now the case may be an actual written case.

It could be a video that you'll have to review.

It could be an article that you have to read.

But in most of those cases it will relate to a business problem as

it relates to new product development.

And what are the appropriate decisions that you have to make

in deciding what research tools to use

given the stage in the product development process that you may be.

So first I would recommend reading the material casually,

trying to get a broad understanding of what the case is about.

And identifying information that may be of importance to you as you're going along.

And you can do that by the second time going in more purposely and

underlying the key facts and maybe writing notes in the margins to help you

better understand which issues are important and

which may not be as important to the actual problem that you have to resolve.

There may be multiple problems, so you need to note those problems.

And the best way of doing that is develop a problem statement

that helps identify the primary problem.

You need to be able to kind of sort out what are the symptoms of the problems and

those things you have to consider to actually solve the problem.

Now we're going to do it by performing both a quantitative and

a qualitative analysis of the business situations, and then develop a set

of recommendations that will be supported by the analysis that you've done.

So it's a iterative process of trying to understand the business situation or

the business problem.

And then identifying potential solutions to that problem.

The ultimate goal is to make a decision

how to best solve the problem that you've identified.

So I look at this as an iterative process that you may have to do two or

three times to actually identify the key problem and

prioritize those problems based upon understanding

the issues each time you move through a reading of the article.

Now even if you feel that you are not comfortable after the reading,

take a second reading and you could even discuss it with your other classmates.

But the first step is to structure that problem and

then develop a plan on how you're going to address that problem.

So once I've identified a problem,

I try to then develop an hypothesis that will lead me to a potential solution.

But before doing that,

I develop a set of questions to better understand that problem.

And once I summarize all the keys facts, I then develop a hypothesis that I can test

by drawing conclusions and implications if I can solve that particular problem.

So the framework, and there are many frameworks for doing a case analysis that

we'll follow in this particular specialization, is a five-step process.

And the first step is to understand the context of the situation that you're in.

And we call that step the situation analysis.

What is the business situation that's presenting a problem or

a decision that you have to make?

So after conducting the situation analysis, we can make assumptions

about the information that we have and also identify missing

information that may be important for us to better make the decision.

For example, if you're developing a new product idea and you want to understand

how that product might be accepted in a certain marketplace.

We may have assumptions about it, but we may not have all of the information and

may need to collect more information to better understand that

situation that your customer is facing.

That missing information can be gained from the different marketing

research techniques that we'll use.

But in doing that and identifying what information that we have and

the assumptions that we're making about the current business situation,

we can then define the problem.

And the definition of the problem may be multiple problems, but we have to

prioritize what's the key problem that we need to develop an alternative for.

Which leads to step four, which is the development of the alternatives.

Once you've identified that particular problem that you are going to prioritize

as the most important, what alternatives do you have available to solve it?

And you evaluate those alternatives based upon the strengths and

weaknesses that they present.

And ultimately make a recommendation in terms of what

path you'll take to solving that particular problem.

So this framework is not cast in stone, but

it's a simple framework that you can use to better understand the problem,

the alternatives, and then ultimately the recommendation that you have to make.

So let's begin with the situation analysis.

We say that you should employ a framework

to identify relevant information and facts.

Now, we've done many different types of situation analysis and

there are many different types of frameworks to use.

But using a framework help you to determine what questions

you need to ask regarding the information that you're trying to obtain.

In the situation analysis, what we're trying to do is to assess our needs for

better understanding the customer, which helps us to identify the research problem.

So the information needed may help you make the decision.

There may be such questions as, what are the latent needs for

your product or service?

Latent needs mean the hidden needs that are not recognizable in typical usage

of the product.

The second question may be, what are the customer needs that are most valued?

Customers have many needs, but what are those that

are the most valuable that will lead to them purchasing one product over another?

Given that you've identified the customer value for your particular product or

service, are there groups of customers that value that product or service?

So who is the target market?

Is it the young people?

Is it the more older people?

Is it the millennials?

Or is it the next group after the millennials?

And then finally, what are the benefits of your product or

service that makes it unique?

We know what the customer values.

We've identified the group of people who are willing to buy the product.

But what makes it unique that they're willing to give up their

current product to actually buy your particular product or service?

So these three basic principles lead to more successful product adoptions.

If we're able to understand what the customer values,

a group of customers that have similar values, and what makes our product or

service unique, we are on the first step to ensuring that our

product will be successful once it's introduced into the marketplace.

Our situation analysis will help us to understand that,

based upon the framework that we use.

So there are different types of frameworks that may become available.

For example, one is called the PEST framework.

And it's called the PEST because it's an acronym for understanding the political,

the environment, social, and technology environment

in terms of how it affects the adoption of your particular product or service.

There are always factors, sometimes outside of your control, that you need to

understand when developing a solution, or in this case developing a product or

service, that will be introduced into the marketplace.

For example, what stage of the technology are you in with the current product?

Are you improving upon the technology?

That allows you to have something different

that solves the customer's problems that was not available before.

Or there could be more of an environmental factor.

The push to become more green may influence how you develop your

product or what services you offer to offer a more green product.

The social trends that are available, or the political trends,

may also affect the environment.

You want to know the magnitude of these variables and

how they directly impact your product development or the product or

service that you would be developing to be accepted in the marketplace.

Now, an alternative framework beyond the PEST is called the five C's approach.

Still using the more macro environmental variables that we talked about before,

we can get more specific in understanding the environment in terms of understanding

the customer by way of the context.

The companies that you're developing, that's your particular firm,

the competitors, and who you have to collaborate with.

But the customer is the central focus of your understanding.

And these contextual, company, competitor, and collaborative

variables may impact the customer in terms of how they view your product or service.

So the context is the broader environment, issues that we talked about earlier.

In terms of your competitors, you have both indirect and direct competitors.

And both may influence your product or

service that you're introducing into the marketplace.

Are you able to take your product to the market directly to the customer or

will you have to rely upon collaborators, such as a supply chain?

And is that supply chain available to introduce your product or

service into the marketplace?

And finally, you as the company that are developing this particular product,

may have certain strengths or weaknesses that will allow you to compete better.

But it's necessary to make sure that your product is ultimately accepted into

the marketplace.

And then finally, the technique of what we call the SWOT analysis helps us to better

understand the assumptions that we're making in the marketplace.

You're going to look for your particular strengths and

weaknesses to uncover opportunities or threats in the marketplace.

So once you identify these key facts, and

you separate your facts from the assumptions, then you can determine

what position you're in to introduce your product into the marketplace.

So a SWOT analysis gives you an insight into your strengths and

weaknesses versus your competitors, but also your strengths in

terms of delivering upon your promises to the customer with your product or service.

Having done the situation analysis, we should be able to populate each one of

these cells with key facts and assumptions that will

help us better understand how to go to the next step in developing our product.

So once we have our situation analysis done,

we will be able to go to the next step of defining the research problem.

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Case Method Analysis

Customer Insights: New Product Development Orientation

Meet the Instructors