CASE STUDY 05
Through customer interviews, we helped 14 robotics companies that began with technology reassess the required price points, features, markets, and development directions.
Client Context
Technology companies are skilled at building products, but the process of determining who should buy the technology and why is easily pushed aside. The 14 service robot companies also needed to go beyond demonstration and development to validate actual customers, target markets, required features, and prices customers could afford.
Transformation Design
Instead of the conventional approach of discarding the technology and starting over from the customer problem, The Innovation Lab applied the Market Backward approach, starting with the value elements of the existing technology to explore multiple product-market combinations. From May through September 2024, we combined five dedicated coaching sessions for each team with separate training and supported customer interview design, commercial viability reviews, business model refinement, and the definition of next steps.
Changes in Decisions · Actions
Participating companies said that customer interviews gave them a more concrete understanding of the prices and features customers wanted, as well as the development direction and business model design process needed to account for marketability. This case was not about refining how the technology was described; it was a process of reestablishing, through the voice of the customer, the criteria for deciding which markets to target and which products to build.
Key Proof Points
- 14 Service Robot Companies
- Five Dedicated Coaching Sessions per Team
- Reassessment of Price · Features · Market · Development Direction Through Customer Interviews