The Process of Developing Products That Respond to Desire: The "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program"

The key to beloved products lies in "moving hearts." The previous article introduced that a development process rooted in "desire" is essential for creating products that resonate with customers. So, what specific product development process should be followed?

This time, Takashi Chiba continues his explanation of the details and benefits of utilizing the "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program" provided by Dentsu Inc.'s cross-organizational project "DENTSU DESIRE DESIGN (DDD)."

※This article is re-edited based on a blog published on Do! Solutions.

 

Takashi Chiba Producer/Planner, Dentsu Inc. After working in sales, digital, television, and DENTSU SOKEN INC., he joined the Future Forecasting Support Lab / Future Business Creation Research in 2022, where he helps clients create future corporate value. He also leads the consumer research project "DENTSU DESIRE DESIGN," analyzing consumption trends and new product development based on desire.

<Table of Contents>
▼What is the "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program"?

▼Generate novel product ideas through 4 steps

▼5 unique implementation benefits!

▼Developing valuable new products, not just fueling consumption

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What is the "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program"?

A new product development support solution that generates ideas based on desire

The "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program" provided by "DENTSU DESIRE DESIGN (DDD)" is a new product development support solution that consistently handles everything from product development to branding, starting from the "desires" hidden in consumers' hearts.

Its most significant feature is its thorough focus on "concretizing the 'desires' deep within customers' hearts and developing products that fulfill them," differing from the conventional approaches of "explicit need-based ideation" or "seed-based ideation." This program incorporates extensive insights from DDD's consumer research and product development support expertise, uniquely systematizing the process from ideation to strategy design.

Leveraging raw voice data from 24,000 people who experienced genuine emotional resonance

The key point in desire-based product development is how accurately one can capture and visualize the customer's "desire."

While various consumer behaviors and attitudes are increasingly visible as data today, this data often fails to delve into "why" those actions were taken or "why" those thoughts arose, sometimes proving insufficient for accurately capturing desire.

In contrast, this program utilizes the database from DDD's regularly conducted "Heart-Moving Consumption Survey." This survey broadly collects free-response answers on what types of consumption moved consumers' hearts, aggregating the "raw voices" of approximately 24,000 individuals. Leveraging this valuable, proprietary data from Dentsu Inc. enables the visualization of real desires.

The program is conducted in a workshop format led primarily by the company's own employees.

Please note: This solution is not a one-way proposal of new product ideas from DDD. It is a supportive solution designed to empower employees to generate ideas themselves.

The core of the program consists of three workshops. Company employees take the lead in ideation, with DDD providing its proprietary consumer research data, idea generation methodologies, high-quality facilitation, and insights at each session.

Generate novel product ideas through four distinct steps

Incorporating four steps into the conventional new product development process

Let's dive right into the specific new product development process. The "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program" is implemented through the following four steps:

STEP 1: Identify Key Desires
STEP 2: Extract the keys to heart-moving consumption
STEP 3: Generate Heart-Moving Product Ideas
STEP 4: Design desire-based experiences

By integrating these steps into your company's existing new product development workflow, you can shift toward a desire-based product development process.

What each step entails

While we've detailed each step and workshop content in our free eBook —which we encourage you to download—here's a brief introduction:

STEP 1: Select the Desires to Focus On

First, analyze what desires your new product's target audience holds and what characteristics move them emotionally.

This analysis utilizes our proprietary "11 Desires" framework, derived from our "Heart-Moving Consumption Research." We compare desire distributions across your company's users, the general public, market categories, and competing brands to strategically determine which desires to focus on for this new product development.

STEP 2: Extract the Keys to Emotionally Driven Consumption

Once the key desires are defined, we decipher what actual consumer behaviors move consumers who possess these desires.

This is where DDD's proprietary idea generation method, the "Desire Hashtag," comes into play. Participants individually read the free-response answers from the "Heart-Moving Consumption Survey." During workshops, they organize these responses to discover and articulate key "Desire Hashtags." The hashtags and sentences developed here become crucial keys to heart-moving consumption.

STEP 3: Generate Emotionally Resonant Product Ideas

Using the "Desire Hashtags" articulated in STEP 2 as inspiration, we generate concrete product ideas.

We don't just consider the product or service content; we also explore naming and concept statements simultaneously, driving more creative product development with a clear, consistent direction.

STEP 4: Desire-Based Experience Design

STEP 4 is the phase where we strategize how to bring the newly conceived product ideas to market.

We create a scenario—the "Desire Customer Journey"—that transforms vague desires into clear purchase decisions and ultimately leads to post-purchase satisfaction. This allows us to concretely design the customer's consumption experience.

Five unique benefits!

Accelerate Stalled New Product Development

As introduced above, the "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program" has established program flow and methods. This enables smooth progress even in product development projects that often stall—such as those lacking novelty or a decisive factor.

It can be utilized not only for new product development within departments, but also for cross-organizational development involving many stakeholders and difficult progress, as well as for developing collaborative products with other companies.

Transforming ideas into tangible outputs

While there are various reasons new product development gets stuck, we often hear the frustration: "We have ideas, but we can't design a strategy to connect them to output." This program goes beyond ideation, providing a complete set including concrete experience design and strategic planning for market launch, enabling more realistic new product development.

Consistent support from launch through post-launch

Furthermore, after the decision to launch, DDD and various departments within Dentsu Inc. provide comprehensive support for commercialization, communication planning (including advertising and PR), and creative production.

Backed by factual evidence

As introduced earlier, this program uses DDD's proprietary "Heart-Moving Consumer Research" and the "11 Desires" analyzed from it as evidence. This provides high credibility, broadens the scope of ideas, and serves as effective supporting material when advancing plans.

Employee-led, proactive projects can be executed

While supported by DDD members with extensive product development experience, the initiative remains firmly in the hands of your employees. Deepening idea generation through workshops makes product development a personal endeavor, leading to increased commitment and motivation.

Incidentally, participants from companies that have adopted this program in the past have provided comments such as the following:

Developing valuable new products, not just driving consumption

The primary goal is genuine customer satisfaction

We've discussed the process and benefits of "Heart-Moving New Product Development" so far. Thinking about products from a desire-based perspective is fundamentally about how customer-centric your product thinking can be.

If the sole goal is just to "sell well" or "go viral," it can easily become company-centric, failing to truly understand the customer's inner feelings. Through the "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program," we at DDD aim to support the development of products that bring genuine satisfaction to our customers.

Please consider utilizing this approach beyond just new product development!

Although the solution is named the "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program," it is not limited solely to new product development. Using the same methodologies and data, it can also be applied to refine existing product targeting strategies and revitalize existing branding. If you have any inquiries or questions, please feel free to contact us.

Download the related eBook here

Download "Heart-Moving New Product Development Program by DENTSU DESIRE DESIGN"

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