Our customers are concerned about successfully defining, developing and marketing products. We supply what they need for this: the knowledge of market situations and the use cases of the addressed target groups. In addition, we have the methods necessary in order to be able to prepare forecasts on the change of requirements and estimate their probability of occurence in the future.
Among other things, we use this expertise within the scope of strategy, product planning and product definition projects as well as for the writing of specifications for systems, modules and components – for products with short as well as longer development times.
Product Development Forecasts
When defining products with short development times, the focus is primarily on analyzing the existing data material. The decisive success factor is to have the necessary information available very quickly and repetitively in a sufficiently large data sample. This enables us to react promptly to things as they happen.
Products with longer development times and products that are intended to open up an as yet undefined market or niche are subject to more complex analytical requirements. This is where we deal with trends. The early recognition and understanding of trends that could influence both the market situation and the considered use cases is essential.
In order to finally make decisions for one or more possible future scenarios – and the associated product definition – the entry-level scenarios must be assessed. Specific research, experience and specialist know-how are particularly important here – competences that we bring with us.
Value Based Trend Evaluation and Verification
In addition to traditional methods of trend research such as monitoring, scanning, context analysis, trend scouting or the Delphi method, we also apply our own methods.
With the qualitative method “Value-Based Trend Evaluation and Verification”, we can identify trends and estimate the relevant implementation rates. Approaches from behavioral research are used here. The assessment of future behavioral patterns and reactions to trends (technological, economic or social) is carried out on the basis of basic evolutionary and biological behavioral patterns, which are thus fundamentally stable.
Example applications:
– estimating the acceptance of technology
e.g. by-Wire technologies, AI in the area of MMI
– analyzing system features with regard to entirely new use cases
e.g. in the context of autonomous driving or its subsystems
– establishing equipment and pricing rationales
– estimating the ability to charge more within the scope of business cases .
In addition, we offer classic market research methods such as quantitative surveys, focus groups and clinics, in some instances with partners.
Big Data Analytics
Nowadays, due to ever faster product life cycles and short-lived product definitions, the methods of traditional quantitative market research are suitable only to a limited extent. We have set our focus on Big Data Analytics, which increasingly make use of AI algorithms.
For some years now, AI has been widely used in industry and is increasingly gaining acceptance. These methods have been used in the business context for quite some time, above all in Asia, and especially in China. For this reason we operate this competence mainly from our joint venture in China with one of the leading Big Data companies as our partner.
EFS Consulting has built up extensive expertise in this field and is a reliable partner when it comes to making the future more tangible.
