Image Diagrams

Image diagrams are a central element in the Customer-centric Product Definition (CPD) as described by Sheila Mello (Mello, 2002). CPD is a four stage process consisting of customer visits, processing of visit data, analysis of customer requirements and solution generation. Whereas the process itself is a repetition of the typical, and undeniably logical, ‘gather data --> analyze data --> produce solutions’, the use of image diagrams is an interesting method for obtaining user-insights.

Customer images are collected during interviews. They consist of the customer’s own descriptions of their environments and experiences. Descriptions that qualify as images are those that conjure up concrete pictures. These ‘pictures’ are captured verbatim, e.g. “The components look like the lights of Tokyo stacked up next to the TV” (Mello, 2002, s. 80). Contrary, an example of a non-image could be “I would like it to weigh less than two pounds and easily fit in my briefcase”.

When the images have been collected from the transcripts they go through image digestion. It is not unusual to go from 2000 to 30 images during this selection, which is carried out the following way: Each team member who was involved in the customer interviews reads through all the images and ‘selects those they feel are key images’ (Mello, 2002, s. 81). The images that no-one selected are removed. This is done again and again until 20-30 images remains.

These images are then organized into an image diagram which ideally answers the question: “What scenes or images come to mind when you visualize your customer?” Furthermore, the images can serve as a fundament for deriving specific, actionable requirements in more detail. The diagram is constructed by grouping similar images under headlines, for instance ‘product use compromises’, and literally arranging them in a diagram based on cause and effect.