3.5 Customer need

Figure 7 The Sinclair C5 was an early electric car that was ahead of its time

Customer need describes a situation where, having come to know your customers very well, you recognise that the product or idea you have is not vital or important enough to them to make them switch from their existing product, supplier or behaviour.

How would you know this was the case and that you need to respond by pivoting?

You might find that people are not prepared to pay what you ask for your service or product, or that the need is not as strong as you thought it was to make the customers switch their behaviour. Your options are either to explore whether, with better positioning of your idea in the marketplace, customers will come around (e.g. you have a communication need or need to make adjustments to the product specification or perhaps to pricing) or to decide there is a more radical need to find a different product to serve the confirmed customer need.

Bear in mind that some products may simply be ahead of their time, which may have been the case for early ‘green’ products to which the mass market is now much more receptive.