Homework

Individual Homework 2

Chapter 6 Reading

Save homework as a pdf and upload to the link provided on Blackboard. Please be sure to label your file as follows: “Last name First name Indiv HW 2.pdf”

Reading Comprehension (12 pts)

Read chapter 6. Answer the following questions:

1. List a set of metrics corresponding to the need that ‘a pen write smoothly’. Provide a minimum of 3 metrics. (4 points)

2. How might you establish precise and measurable specifications for intangible needs such as “the front suspension looks great”? (4 points)

3. Can poor performance relative to one specification always be compensated for by high performance on other specifications? If so, how can there ever really be a “marginally acceptable” value for a metric? (4 points)

Activity (20 pts)

Chose a product (not related to your group project opportunity), such as camping tents that you can collect benchmark information. It is the goal of this exercise to find out which user needs lead to the highest or lowest rankings in similar products. This exercise will help your team focus on the most important user needs.

1. Create an excel document to record your work. (Similar to Exhibit 6-7)

2. Prepare a list of metrics (Step 1: Prepare the List of Metrics, Chapter 6).

3. Collect competitive benchmark information from 2 competitive products on Amazon that have a substantial number of reviews. (Step 2: Collect competitive benchmark information, Chapter 6)

4. Break down each review. For example, if a review for a tent discusses how the poles broke the first night and leaked in a rainstorm, make categories for “reliable poles” & “water resistance”.

5. For each mention of those categories, make a new entry, recording whether the mention was positive, neutral, or negative, and the overall rating(# of stars) of the review.

6. Continue scanning reviews for new categories or repeated mentions of existing ones. Look through at least 15 reviews for each product, with roughly five 5-star reviews, five 3-star reviews, and five 1-star reviews.

Analyze your data. Which features, when done well, lead to a high ranking? Which features, when negatively mentioned, lead to low ratings? Create a numerical ranking of the importance of each need.

Reflect. Are there items missing in your needs list which you saw recurring in your qualitative benchmarked products? Are there items in your user needs list which were never mentioned and you believe need to be removed?

Important! Save these reviews to pdf, along with the links. They are raw data, and will be included with your homework.