Customer-focused product development : An outdoor industry perspective

Sammanfattning: Being customer‐focused is often considered to be a key success factor inproduct‐ or service development. This kind of approach may comprise manythings in practice, such as formal or informal methods and activities that arecarried out to identify and meet, or preferably exceed, customer needs andexpectations. The overall purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a greaterknowledge about the use and function of methods, activities and tools regardingcustomer‐focused product development in the outdoor industry.The thesis is based on three papers, all related to customer‐focused productdevelopment within the outdoor industry. Two empirical studies have beenconducted. In the first one, the outdoor companies’ own experiences of customerinvolvement in product development are examined. In the second study, the useand function of environmental labels as drivers of attractive quality within theoutdoor industry are explored.A new methodology for customer‐focused product development is alsopresented. It is aimed to be used as a hands‐on support for designing for thesatisfaction of customer needs at different levels in practice, especially those thathave been found to be important in the creation of attractive quality and customerloyalty.