Customer partnering: a new approach to needs analysis

Customer partnering is a method of analyzing user needs in which a company works closely with its customers to design products that better meet their needs. The process is somewhat akin to using contextual inquiry and focus groups, but it provides much more detail about how the company can meet customers' needs and it involves the customer much more deeply in the design process. Rather than devoting one or two days to a site visit or a few hours to an interview or focus group session, company researchers engage customers in a series of working sessions over a period of weeks or months. This extended engagement allows both company researchers and customers to consider issues introduced at each new session in the context of perspectives developed in previous sessions.