Customer Hierarchy of Needs: Customer Centric Approach to Agile Product Development

Abstract

Oftentimes in Agile product development, the MVP (minimum viable product) is defined and agreed upon for development to release product quickly to learn directly from customers. As the team develops and works through the requirements for MVP, scope creep can happen; requirements change; or new customer requests come in which may change the direction of the work. When this occurs, the instinct of the team is to “react” to the changing demands and can cause the team to lose focus of what the original customer need was. To ensure that the development team is keeping the customer at the focal point of the work, the Customer Hierarchy of Needs was developed. The Customer Hierarchy of Needs method is an effective way to define and prioritize features and functionality for a product through the lens of what the customer may need or want based on their existing level of need. In this paper, we will explain the customer hierarchy of needs method, how it was applied to a project at Crown Equipment Corporation, lessons learned by the development team, and the benefits of utilizing this method.