Citation (IEEE): A. Griffin and J. R. Hauser, “The Voice of the Customer,” Marketing Science, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1–27, 1993. doi: 10.1287/mksc.12.1.1.
What it argues
A landmark empirical study of how to identify, structure and prioritize customer needs for product development. Drawing on industry practice, the authors examine how many interviews are needed, whether one-on-one interviews or focus groups are more efficient, how many analysts should read the transcripts, how needs should be grouped into hierarchies, and how importance should be measured. The result established “voice of the customer” as a structured, repeatable method feeding quality function deployment.