Saint-Gobain PAM UK has been looking carefully at the area of commonality of customer needs across European markets. Predicting market need for future water pipe networks and comparing it with that of the rest of Europe became goals in a fascinating project undertaken using cross-functional teams from France, UK, Finland, Germany and Spain. The project leant heavily towards exploring installation and service requirements as opposed to purely product development. It utilised a formal process to discover customer needs, both known and unknown, and included techniques such as face-to-face interviews, side-by-side testing (comparing an innovated product with the closest 'best-in-class' equivalent already available) and technical brainstorming. A key part of the process was the series of face-to-face interviews and site visits carried out in each country with water companies, design consultants, utility companies, contractors, specifiers and other invaluable industry representatives in order to ensure robust research results.
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