Abstract
This paper examines the value creation in product development with a focus on Japanese consumer electronics. In previous research, it is purported that customer value consists of benefits and costs. However in prior research, how benefits are actually formed is often overlooked. In this paper, customer benefits are defined as the realization of a solution for customer needs and desires for their lifestyle. Customer benefits are composed of those that are measured or those that are not. When the latter unmeasured benefits are designed for product functions, evaluation by human senses is necessary. However, these senses felt by customers are different for each person in the market. Reflecting only one opinion will not always be successful. Product development is collaborative work with various departments and between individuals. If the development objective is sensuous and ambiguous, it can be considered that how it will be achieved will be a problem for companies. How these kinds of problems are actually resolved is considered to contain implications about how to create benefits as the product value. The research method is mainly a semi-structured interview survey about the product development process. Interviews are conducted to 22 people belonging to seven different Japanese companies, from December 2010 to July 2014. The results of these studies, the process of creating benefits, are as follows. These benefits are sensuous, and are difficult to be communicated with their colleagues. Every developer has a virtual sense of what the customer would think of as its benefits. In this paper, these senses felt by these developers are defined as a "virtual benefit". Therefore, product prototype as a common indicator of a particular sense of the development objectives is used. By repeatedly evaluating the senses created by the prototype, the virtual benefits multiple developers have are converged as one sensation. Because this process of convergence is affected by the sense of each individual, it has a possibility becoming a redundant process with much trial and error. In order to avoid this, informative communication is required. In this paper, it is argued that in the case of this kind of development, there should be shared senses and knowledge.
