Ryma's May 27th webinar was presented by Dick Lee and Blake Bogrett. Together they drilled down into one of the details reviewed in the "Blue Ocean Strategy" webinar presented May 13 of this year. They explained why Contextual Interviewing is the single most important task you carry out in developing new software, a new product or service. The success of all other steps hinges solely on getting this one right.

They pointed out why marketing groups don't typically have the core competencies to do this. They showed where Contextual Interviewing fits in the Value Innovation Process, and how the approach to Focus Groups has changed over time.

Dick and Blake reviewed the process for setting up the interview team, defining team member roles and responsibilities, selecting the lead interviewer (select a person with a low KAI Index and you're dead on arrival), picking the format that works best for the project and interviewees, the do's and don'ts, the golden rules, capturing the outputs, winning interviewee "buy-in" for the next two interviews, addressing how we transition from interview outputs into Elements of Performance in a Value Curve with Metrics, and more.

One of the Golden Rules: Do NOT outsource this to a third party. Having a third party help you is fine, but your team must be there to hear, understand, and react to, The Nuggets!

Background: For more information about Contextual Interviewing,  To learn more about Value Curves with Metrics and download examples