This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Gather Direct Feedback and Indirect Feedback
If the product is something that brings value to the customer, how do we find out what value actually means to them?
We need to gather feedback, both directly from the customer by asking, and indirectly in the form of measuring results.
Indirect Feedback – Measuring Customer Results
In Lean, there are certain results, called the “Customer Driven Metrics”, which can show us whether a process is working well or not, and also help us clearly define any problem before we begin (3.3). Almost every improvement opportunity within a business can be defined using these metrics, as they are centred on our most important participant, the customer.
They are:
1. Quality
An increase in the quality of the product or service (or reduction in defects or rework)
2. Delivery
Making the delivery faster, or better suited to the customer, including faster “delivery” between each process (or improving timings such as Cycle time and Lead time in 2.5).
3. Cost
A decrease in the cost of creating the product or service, which is ultimately related to Quality and Delivery as well.
Of course, Quality, Delivery and Cost are not the only things that can be can measured. Another great way to see whether a product is providing the right value to the customer is to gather feedback on the metrics below:
1. Sales
When there is a product, even a Minimum Viable Product for a start-up company, we can measure the sales of the product as we change or add features to it. In this case, the more sales the better.
2. Returns
While not traditionally considered a good thing, if a product is being returned this is still feedback that we can use, and can also be a good opportunity for us to ask our customer more about what brings them value.
3. Customer Complaints
Complaints are the perfect way to measure if a product is performing well. Obviously, the fewer the better. They are also a goldmine for Lean initiatives because where there is a complaint, there is an opportunity to improve, so we should collect complaints and use them wisely.
Direct Feedback – Asking Our Customer
Alternatively, the most straight forward way to get feedback from a customer is to ask. And typically the best time to ask a customer for feedback is after they have bought the product or service and the experience is fresh in their minds – for example when Lisa has been through a sales call with one of her customers.
Depending on the situation, we can use:
- Asking face to face
- Telephone follow-up calls
- Email follow-ups
- Customer surveys
- An online question box
- A feedback slip to collect or place in a box
Sections 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 go into more detail as to what to specifically ask your customers, and how to manage the results you get.
This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Selected chapters from the story within Five minute Lean:
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Makes a Change
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Discovers a New Way
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Performs a Balancing Act
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Pulls the Trigger
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Sets a New Standard
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Becomes a Leader
Check out these selected chapters from the teachings within Five Minute Lean:
- Five Minute Lean – Go to the Gemba
- Five Minute Lean – Put it Together With Design for Ease of Use
- Five Minute Lean – Gather Direct Feedback and Indirect Feedback
- Five Minute Lean – Work Towards One-Piece-Flow (and Reducing Silos or Batching)
- Five Minute Lean – Heijunka: Level the Workload when Demand Fluctuates
- Five Minute Lean – Organise Your Process with Five S
- Five Minute Lean – Help Your Process Flow with Line Balancing
- The Five Minute Catch-up
- Five Minute Lean Summary
- Five Minute Lean – Create a New Standard Procedure and Checklist for Quality Control
- Five Minute Lean – Eliminate the Eight Wastes to Improve Flow
- Five Minute Lean – Make Feedback Meaningful with Kano Analysis
- Five Minute Lean – Implement With Agile for Fast Iterations and Feedback
- Five Minute Lean – Use Pareto to Find Where to Start
- Five Minute Lean – Present and Manage Your Change Using an A3 and LCA
- Five Minute Lean – Get Your Map Started with a SIPOC
- Five Minute Lean – Solve the Real Cause of the Problem
- Five Minute Lean – Use Kaizen and Kaizen Events to Help Stakeholder Buy-In
- Five Minute Lean – Add Important Data to Your Map
- Five Minute Lean – Value is Determined by the Customer