Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 15, 2021 - September 17, 2021
The technology-oriented strategy of the manufacturing industry, which supported Japan's international competitiveness in the 1990s, lost its competitive advantage due to the expansion of market globalization and the rapid technological improvement of emerging countries. What has emerged since the beginning of the 21st century has been the information technology industry, which has succeeded through market-pull innovation strategy represented by Big Tech or Big Four (GAFA). In order for products and services to have novelty and superiority in the market, it is important to grasp the latent needs obtained from users. Latent needs are defined as "those that many customers recognize as important but cannot be clearly stated in advance." Various surveys in the discovery of ideas aim to uncover latent needs, but the conditions and factors that can obtain the latent needs are unspecified. Therefore, in our research, prototype-based interviews were conducted to a focus group of men and women who had childcare experience. The interviews were regarding the effect of the covid-19 pandemic to their daily life including childcare and housework. The non-prototype interviews were also conducted to compare and elucidate latent needs. In the interview results and their interpretations, it was found that while the information presented in the prototype-based interview leads to eliciting new needs, but it may narrow the range of thoughts and opinions on the user side. In the future, it will be necessary to further verify and improve the effectiveness of the method through the overall execution of the innovative design methodology.
