Forbes has an article about using consumer input in the product development process, a range of methodologies described and the results on their businesses explained. Nice!
General Motors, under pressure to create a midprice blockbuster sport utility with the look of a macho Hummer, relied on input from 481 people summoned to a building on an empty fairground in southern California in June 2001. Visitors were asked to critique six early renderings of the SUV. They came in five groups over three days. As they reacted to sketches of the exterior and interior, four GM designers listened from behind a curtain, scrawling changes on paper. 'We wanted to see how much we could stretch our design,' says Jon B. Albert, a design manager at GM.
