WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Individuals or Cross-functional teams from R&D, marketing, sales, product management, and anyone who engages with customers or makes decisions based on customer insights.

WHAT YOU LEARN

1. Apply Needs-Based Approach: Improve product development, experience design, marketing messaging, and sales value propositions through customer needs focus, distinguishing programmatic from ad-hoc VOC approaches.
2. Conduct Effective Interviews: Master the VOC mindset and techniques for customer conversations that reveal true needs, using questioning, probing, and observation methods.
3. Extract Insights from Multiple Sources: Gather intelligence from site visits, user-generated content, and secondary data sources beyond formal interview settings.
4. Transform Data into Insights: Convert raw VOC data into actionable insights and compelling messaging that drives decisions and actions across the organization.
5. Document and Share: Use structured frameworks and catalogues to capture and disseminate customer needs, ensuring organizational knowledge sharing and application.

 WHAT YOU GET

1. VOC frameworks and methodologies ready for immediate application
2. Interview and discussion guide templates for various VOC scenarios
3. Needs documentation and cataloguing tools for knowledge sharing
4. Practical techniques applicable immediately to customer engagements
5. Case study analysis showing VOC in practice (Ingredion nutrition bar example)
6. Hands-on exercises balancing conceptual understanding with skill-building

INSTRUCTOR

Gerry Katz is a recognized authority in the areas of new product development, design of new services, process innovation, and market research, with more than 45 years of consulting experience. In October 2022, he was named a Practice Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM).  At Applied Marketing Science, he has led more than 300 major client engagements employing the Voice of the Customer (VOC), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and a large number of other strategic marketing science applications. His client engagements have covered a wide variety of industries, with particular emphasis on healthcare, medical technology, and commercial / industrial products. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA), the world’s leading professional society devoted to the study and practice of developing and commercializing new products and services. He is also certified as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) and is a senior contributing editor to Visions Magazine.

​​Kristyn Corrigan – In her 20+ years of consulting experience, she has helped dozens of companies use customer insights to create more successful products, services, and customer experiences. Kristyn has extensive experience leading both domestic and international research engagements in business-to-business and consumer markets. She specializes in helping her clients not only understand stated and latent customer needs through in-depth interviewing and ethnographic observation but also with how to measure their criticality to innovation.

In addition to consulting work, Kristyn trains and coaches companies to create and implement their own in-house Insights and Voice of the Customer programs. Kristyn’s published work has been featured in Fast Company and Marketing News. She has been a featured guest on the Product Mastery Now podcast.  She is a contributing author of the 2023 textbook, The Product Development and Management Association Handbook of Innovation and New Product Development. She has guest lectured at several institutions, including the MIT Sloan School of Management.  Kristyn currently serves on the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) Executive Board of Directors.