On September 1, 2021 Dr. Klaus Reichert welcomed me in his „Smart Innovation“ podcast. I introduced his audience to SUGAR/Service Design Thinking and reported on our experiences in conducting effective needfinding. By needfinding we mean identifying the needs of members of a target group that are important to address when creating new solutions, products or services for them.
In the talk, we introduce five categories of needfinding techniques: observing, interviewing, engaging, netnography, need mining (AI-supported analysis of social media posts). However, we primarily focused on engaging in terms of conducting (self-)experiments to improve user empathy.
To put needfinding into context of the Design Thinking process as practiced in the SUGAR program please check out the Methodology section of this website.
Listen to our Podcast on Needfinding
You can find the podcast (German only) on your prefered platform or Klaus‘ website (with transcript and additional content):
Dr. Klaus Reichert
Dr. Klaus Reichert is an innovation coach, consultant, and podcaster. In his English podcast The 2pt5 he speaks to innovation icons and entrepreneurs from around the globe. His German podcast Smart Innovation focuses on actionable advice and techniques for innovating in times of climate change.