Uncovering Customer Desires: Understanding Benefits in Concept Development

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What truly matters in product design – the features you create or the benefits users experience? In this exploration of a cornerstone concept, we dive into the critical distinction between benefits and features that can make or break your product development efforts.

Benefits describe your users' experience – the positive outcomes and emotional connections that result from using your product. Features, meanwhile, are the tangible, measurable components that make your product work. Understanding this distinction isn't just academic – it transforms how you approach design challenges and communicate value to customers.

Through practical examples from my own website redesign journey, I demonstrate how focusing on benefits first guided the development of features. The episode also explores how needs differ from both benefits and features, representing the gap between what users currently have and what they want to achieve. 

By starting with targeted customer benefits and working backward to determine which features and offerings will deliver them, you create products that don't just work – they deeply resonate with users.

Ready to transform your approach to product development? Visit DeeneyEnterprises.com, take the product development archetype quiz, and discover resources tailored to your specific technical, teamwork, or leadership challenges. Share your feedback and be part of validating whether the site's features truly deliver on their promised benefits!

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ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, welcome to the Quality During Design podcast.
I'm Diana Deeney.
This episode is partannouncement, but mostly a topic
discussion.
The announcement is you have anew website.
Instead ofqualityduringdesigncom, it takes
you to deeneyenterprisescom,where the functionality is
completely different andprovides benefits to you.

(00:21):
The topic I wanna talk abouttoday just so happens to be
benefits to you.
The topic I want to talk abouttoday just so happens to be
benefits versus features.
This is a foundational conceptthat we know.
You know, if we're in productdesign, developing things, we
know the difference betweenbenefits and features.
But when we're in the thick ofthings, in the details, we can

(00:41):
sometimes forget.
So sometimes it's worth it torevisit some of the foundational
aspects of product design.
So let's talk about benefitsversus features after this brief
introduction.
Hello and welcome to QualityDuring Design, the place to use
quality thinking to createproducts others love for less.

(01:03):
I'm your host, Diana Deeney.
I'm a senior level qualityprofessional and engineer with
over 20 years of experience inmanufacturing and design.
I consult with businesses andcoach individuals and how to
apply quality during design totheir processes.
Listen in and then join us.
Visit qualityduringdesigncom.

(01:24):
Listen in and then join usVisit qualityduringdesigncom.
So, yes, this announcementthere's a new website resource
for you to access for all thingsquality during design and all
of my other services andofferings.
I was debating publishing like abrief, quick podcast.
That just made the announcement, because I'm really excited

(01:45):
about it.
It took many months of research, setting up and actual work
time to be able to make thischange happen, but I'm really
proud of it and I think you'rereally going to like it.
When I was coming up with thisepisode, I went back to some
basics because I was thinking Idon't want to just list out a

(02:06):
bunch of features that I've beendesigning and working on for
this website for months.
I want to focus on the benefits, because that's the true reason
why I wanted to present this toyou.
This isn't just a new websitedesign that's pretty.
I really intended it to be afunctional design that provided
my listeners, my users and mywebsite visitors value benefits

(02:30):
which are different fromfeatures.
So when I'm prepping for thisepisode, I'm reminded of that.
You don't want features, youwant benefits.
That's a cornerstone of productdevelopment and it just so
happens when I'm looking at theschedule of my podcast topics,
the topic is exploring benefitsversus features.

(02:51):
Sometimes the universe justaligns perfectly and things
happen the way they're supposedto, which is what's happening
with this podcast episode.
I want to talk with you aboutbenefits versus features and
maybe compare them against someuser needs, because they're all

(03:11):
different.
They each have a differentimportance in product design.
They each have a differentpurpose and a different focus,
but they all intertwine togetherto be able to give us
information about our customersand targets for what we need to
design against, In this case,along with this announcement for

(03:32):
my website.
You are my customers.
I had you in mind when I wasthinking about benefits versus
features, so let's talk aboutthese two different concepts,
why they're different and how wetreat them differently in
design.
What are benefits?
Benefits describe the user'sexperience, so their positive

(03:54):
outcomes of using our productand the impact that it has on
the user.
Benefits can be beliefs orreasons.
They're the effect of whateverfeature our users are using in
our product.
It could be described as anarrative or an emotional
connection.
The focus of a benefit is onthe user because it improves

(04:18):
their situation.
Benefits also tell us how afeature adds value.
As you're listening, I'mwondering if you caught on that
I used an acronym to describebenefits.
An example of a benefitstatement could be our customers
can use product capabilities orhave these characteristics so

(04:38):
they can experience this value.
Benefits are a relationship ofthe feature that we're offering
and the impact that it gives toour customers.
A need, on the other hand, is agap in the problem space.
Our team has already identifiedneeds, which prompted the whole
product development project inthe first place.
Needs are that gap between whatthe user can do now or has now

(05:03):
compared to what they want to door have.
Needs identify and characterizethe problem space.
One way of looking at needs isto consider the jobs to be done,
which focuses on the outcome.
It challenges us to question ifthe current way is really the
best way of doing something.
Another way of looking at needsis through user personas, which

(05:25):
we can use to consider thereasons or motivations behind
our users' behaviors.
Needs can be something ourcustomers have identified.
It also might be something thatthey really haven't even
considered.
A need statement can be wordedlike this Our customer needs to
do this so they can achieve this.

(05:45):
Comparing that again to ourbenefit statements our customers
can use product capabilities orhave characteristics so they
can experience this value.
Needs and benefits aredifferent.
Must users have a benefit inorder to fill a need?
No, but benefits are anexperience that will give our

(06:08):
customers satisfaction.
When we're in the early, fuzzyfront end of product development
, when we're thinking aboutconcept development, we may have
some needs that sound likebenefits and if we do, we can
examine them as benefits anddevelop design inputs.
That's not a problem, but thesethings will sort of work

(06:29):
themselves out and through theprocess of concept development
we'll get clarity on what iswhat what's a need versus what's
a benefit.
Features, on the other hand,when our design project is
complete, specific features willbe tangible and measurable.
Features can be described asfacts.
They are essential functions orcomponents.

(06:51):
They're attributes in whichtest data can describe it.
They're unique and the reasonthat our product works.
We can usually explain featureswith instructions.
I don't know if you caught onthis time, but I also used an
acronym to describe features.
I'll put a graphic of theseacronyms of benefit and feature

(07:13):
on the podcast blog.
So our product features are theproduct capabilities or
characteristics that we designfor our customers to use In our
concept development.
We're not exactly sure whatthose characteristics are going
to be.
We can discuss generic featuresin order to develop design
inputs.

(07:33):
Discuss generic features inorder to develop design inputs,
but we can't detail them orengineer them on the spot during
concept development.
We're simply gatheringpotential design inputs.
So, if we take this example ofthe new website,
dinienterprisescom, let's lookat the benefits versus the
features.
The benefits that I wanted youto have is I wanted you to get

(07:54):
clarity on your current roles innew product development.
We all experience frustrationsin product development, but if
you can specifically name thechallenges that you face, then
you can take the next step anddo something about it or
understand some of the thingsthat you can do about it.
So that's one benefit that Iwanted to give you.

(08:15):
With the new website design andits links and functionality is
clarity understanding yourcurrent situation and then
gaining steps on what to doabout it.
Next, the impact that thisclarity will have on you is to
make your work easier and makeyour job better, and so that you
can get better results, you'llbe a happier person having done

(08:36):
this.
Now, what are the features ofthe website that allow me to
give this to you?
One feature is that thewebsite's more organized.
It's better indexed by topic.
Are you taking a more technicalapproach to product development
, Then there's these resourcesfor you.
Do you focus more on teamwork?

(08:56):
Then there's these otherresources for you.
And, finally, leadership alsohas its own track for
understanding its specificchallenges and then potential
solutions for that.
So that is one feature to giveyou that benefit of clarity.
The other feature that I addedto the website was a quiz, an
archetype quiz.

(09:16):
What's your product developmentarchetype and what to do next?
So taking a short five questionquiz will get you to whether
you are more technical, if yourchallenges are with teamwork or
with leadership, and that canlead you into an email sequence
that can help you withdeveloping solutions.

(09:37):
Even if you've been in productdevelopment for a while and have
seen many challenges, I thinkthe quiz is a good way to
understand where you are at themoment and identify some of the
things that you can do or focuson in order to improve that
situation.
All right, another benefit thatI focused on was making sure

(09:59):
that the resources that I haveare easier to get.
A lot of the things that I'vedeveloped over the years I put
on the website and they're justfree to access and they're under
resources.
There's a video series where Iexplored quality topics but
toward their application indesign, and it includes my most
popular video about usabilityFMEAs UFMEAs there's a series

(10:24):
about test results analysis.
Some of the topics in thatseries is how to handle
competing failure modes or, whenit's not normal, what kind of
distribution you should chooseand statistical versus practical
significance.
These are all topics I'vehelped people with in the past
and seem to come up regularly.
There's a short training moduleabout mistake-proofing, the

(10:47):
user process, which involvesPokeUK for product design, and
my white paper is easilyaccessible.
Reasons to use quality andreliability early and
iteratively in new productdevelopment and ways to do it.
So those are all features ofthe website dinienterprisescom.
They're all free, easilyorganized so that you can get to

(11:08):
them easily, and the benefit isthat you have resources at your
fingertips to help you improveyour product development
processes.
The third benefit of this newwebsite is just to give users an
understanding.
If they're in the right place.
Are these the kind ofchallenges that you face and are
these some of the solutionsthat you think will work for you

(11:31):
?
Or, if you work with people andthey're experiencing some of
these challenges or you hearthem often, is this something
that you could share withsomebody else.
So if one of the benefits isjust understanding, if you're in
the right place, then some ofthe features that I offer are
the updated podcast and blogsection.

(11:51):
Quality During Design podcastis now combined with the Dini
Enterprises blog and I plan tobe writing more articles.
Also, there's an easy searchfunction and podcasts and blogs
are more easily organized forwhatever focus that you're
looking at and again, thosefocuses are if you're technical,
if you're focused on teamworkor leadership, you'll be able to

(12:14):
find the information andresources that are specific to
your challenges.
So what's today's insight toaction?
I want to encourage you tostart thinking about design from
the perspective of a targetedcustomer benefit.
We usually focus in on beingable to provide a particular
feature and making that happen,making sure the engineering

(12:36):
happens to make that featureavailable.
But is it linked to a customerbenefit?
Not necessarily a need, but abenefit, Something that's going
to impact our users andcustomers in a positive way and
provide value to them, providingthem more reasons for
purchasing and using our productbesides just filling a need or

(12:58):
solving their problem.
And I'd like you to tell me howI did with DiniEnterprisescom.
Did I target the right benefitsand did my features deliver.
You can be part of my testvalidation for my website.
Please visit the site, take thequiz.
Let me know what you think.
This has been a production ofDini Enterprises.

(13:18):
Thanks for listening.