Executives at the San Diego–based WD-40 Company faced a challenging situation. They had a product that was immensely popular but very mature. So they decided to go hunting. They hired a guide (a consultant specializing in developing new products with direct input from users) and pursued their target straight into its habitat — the places where people actually put WD-40 to use.

“To build a product idea you need to understand what your customers’ needs are,” says Chris Miller, founder of Lancaster, Pa.–based Innovation Focus, which helps companies design and facilitate business development programs to foster growth. “You need to you look to your customers and start talking to them yourself.”

Miller’s company implemented and helped manage the integration of real consumers into WD-40’s development process. “We trained the WD-40 people to do their own observations,” he says. “We started by doing a broad spectrum of customer interviews. Then we went into their homes and places of business and observed them. The WD-40 team, the technical and marketing people, went into the field and did their observations. They held the cameras, they took the notes, and they were deeply involved in the process.”

A user who worked with heavy equipment asked why WD-40 didn’t develop a product that could spray large amounts of the lubricating compound over wide areas. The result: the Big Blast, a kind of WD-40 fogger that protects oversize machines. Another user, a homemaker tired of carrying around cans of WD-40, asked why the company couldn’t design a product that would allow her to take care of the little squeaks and sticks in her home. Now WD-40 pens are a big hit at retailers of all kinds.

WD-40’s success demonstrates an important truth about direct consumer involvement in all stages of the product development process: To work, the activity has to be a partnership in which both sides listen to each other and there is an integral bond of trust. “A company needs to have an ongoing, true relationship with its customers. When it reaches a point where it has a product cycle or is developing a new product, the customer needs to be an integral part of that effort,” says Joe Healy, author of Radical Trust, a book about how strong customer relationships can fuel the development process and corporate success.

An Uncommon Practice
Getting this kind of purposeful, focused input from customers, unfortunately, isn’t something most companies seem to want to do. “Companies like to treat their customers the way they do investors — as a cash-flow source,” says Garrison Hoffman, president at Peekskill, N.Y.-based Codefix Consulting Inc. “They want customers to give them their money and go away.”

Other observers have a different explanation. According to Robin Karol, executive director of the Product Development and Marketing Association in Mount Laurel, N.J., companies are wary about bringing customers into the product development process early because of issues such as nondisclosure and confidentiality, “It’s rare because [customers and companies] have no official ties,” she points out, “other than some sort of loyalty, perhaps. And if you’re developing something new, you’re often worried about information or technology leaking out. You may lose your edge if your customers are speaking to other people.”

Hoffman specializes in helping companies take advantage of the ultimate customer-developed product: Linux software. Created using “open source” code, Linux programs are put together by members of the user community. Theoretically, this might create a kind of product development nirvana, but things are somewhat different in reality. “Every software project gets to organize itself, and some are organized well and some are organized poorly,” Hoffman says. In addition, unless someone has an “itch,” a product may lack features that are relatively commonplace in other environments.

A Matter of Trust
Focusing on building trust and giving users benefits from being involved in the development process can alleviate these issues, Healy says. His client Pam Nelson, CEO of Norfolk, Va.-based CCG Systems Inc., agrees. “We are customer driven. Our purpose is to make a positive difference in all our customers’ lives,” says Nelson, whose company creates fleet management software designed specifically for municipalities.

CCG has a strictly defined but very open process for enhancements. Users can enter suggested changes in the company’s software through a Web-based system. But the company reaches out to a highly specific audience when it comes to major version changes. “The key is getting feedback from the best in the business, not just from general surveys,” Nelson says.

While flexibility is critical to successful product development, the following five strategies can help drive the process:

1. Secure top-level support. An effective product development process involves taking significant risks at many different levels. Without support from the highest levels of the company, participants may not feel like they have the permission to act freely and creatively.
2. Cultivate an environment of trust. All too often, the relationship between a company and its customers is antagonistic. Such a situation produces friction, which can make truly creative product development efforts impossible. Customers must be certain that they’ll get respect and advantages for a product development effort to work.
3. Create a partnership with your customers. Once trust exists, partnership follows. When providers and customers act as a team, breakthroughs are almost inevitable. Constant communication is an integral element of this, and must be built into the system.
4. Act on any suggestions that are made. Few things are more frustrating than participating in an exciting process and then seeing nothing happen. Even if the results aren’t spectacular, participants like to see movement, so they know their efforts have not gone to waste.
5. Provide rewards for participation. Whether they’re given a chance to have first crack at a new product or provided with special discounts or access to support, moderate rewards can build loyalty when it comes to the product development process — and that loyalty can be used to fuel further innovation.

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