Trabajo fin de grado 5.5.1.1.1 Datos Básicos del Nivel 3

There was no reliable industry database to quickly identify ideal companies for the study. Moreover, the online presence of Botswana’s companies was inadequate and as a result the survey could not be carried out online. Thus, the researcher had to rely on the snowball technique to identify prospective study participants. Participants that were not conversant in English were helped by the researcher to go through the survey questionnaire.

Intellectual property is not respected, and most companies will not hesitate to reproduce a competitors’ product. This trend was observed in the furniture industry, where a customer just brings a picture of a product and a company will try hard to make a duplicate. Moreover, all companies making Tents (canvas) produced the same designs, and did little or no experimentation with new products.

Since the study methodology follows grounded theory it was essential for the survey findings to inform the interview questionnaire. In addition to the survey findings,

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original questions that were inappropriate for the survey were included onto the interview questionnaire. The aim of the interview study was to probe further and better understand the issues raised by the survey.

The furniture fitting market has a significant number of Chinese owned companies, and local competitors in this market are finding it hard to compete. An attempt to run the survey with identified Chinese owned companies were futile due to communication barriers, the command of the English language and the local language (Setswana) was poor. Some of these companies were secretive and did not want anything to do with the study.

6.5.1 What was learnt from this study

Table 30 shows the themes derived from the survey study findings; and, it also shows questions derived for the next studies and the data collection methods to be used per question. Themes with no follow-up question means the survey study was adequate in finding answers for the questions, therefore no need for a follow-up question in the next study.

Table 30: Themes from the survey study.

Themes from the survey study? Derived questions for the next study Design helped PDP to meet customer needs

(26/41) and help do the jobs right (15/41).

What is an added value of design?

[Interviews]

The majority agrees that all stakeholders

(investors, suppliers, employees and the user) are equally important to PDP. However the results failed to show a clear hierarchy (the most important to the least important stakeholder) that the

researcher was aiming for.

Rank the following stakeholders (investor, supplier, user and employees) in terms of importance to PD? [Interviews]

The results show the majority of participants (73%) reported employing services of a qualified designer:

(63%) of the designers were in-house, 11%

external designers and the rest utilised both in-house and external designers.

How many employees have been through a design school? [Interviews]

The findings show the vast majority of participants viewed design as important to all stages of the product development processes.

60% of the participants reported documenting the PDP, 35% reported not documenting the PDP and the remaining 5% were not sure whether their companies documented the PDP.

How is your product development

“process” documented? [Interviews]

Participants listed; happy client/customer (16/45), product reviews (18/45) and sales/profit (22/45).

Response distribution between the three groups was relatively the same.

Which one of the following measures of product success is the most important?

(product reviews, sales/ profit and a happy client) [Interviews]

Ease of product use is mostly measured during the PDP (designer-product interaction and

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product interaction) and after PDP (after sale follow-up).

The majority (56%) of participants reported going beyond the purchaser and getting in touch with the end user to obtaining user-needs and educate the end-user. However, participants that failed to go beyond the purchaser thought; customer is the user and that the customer and industry standards provided sufficient information.

Participants believe the user can effectively share ideas with PDT.

How can the user/ customer best share ideas?

What is the best way to incorporating user’s ideas into design decision-making?

[Interviews]

The majority of participants reported doing some kind of market research.

How is your market research conducted?

[Interviews]

Almost all participants recognize the importance of incorporating the user in the PDP.

What do you think are the implications of incorporating user on creativity and/ or innovation of NPD teams? [Interviews]

A large majority thought consultation was important to knowing what the user wants and a few thought the designer knows what the user wants. A clear majority 94% of the participants having their products developed through product commission.

Do you do any of the following UCD activities (sample from ISO 13407)?

[Interviews]

The majority of participants thought the user was important to all stages of the PDP. A large majority reported involving the user (beginning and end) while the rest thought standards and anthropometry data as sufficient.

When is it most crucial to involve the user in the PDP?

Are you willing to incorporate UCD activities to PDP?

[Interviews]

About half of participants reported not having links with educational institutions. The other half provided internship positions for the students.

Besides, offering internships what type of a relationship would your company like to have with educational institutions?

[Interviews]

Majority of participants reported running more than six products at a time. A good majority of

participants reported their projects taking less than four weeks.

Participant selection criteria for the next study.

The terms “user” and “customer” seemed blurred to most participants.

The researcher had to explain the two terms at the beginning of the next

questionnaire, to get all participants on the same page. [Interviews]