Identifying latent needs: towards a competence perspective on attractive quality creation

Abstract

Achieving customer delight is at the heart of the quality paradigm, acknowledging the importance of understanding latent needs. While quality researchers have been focusing on methods for classifying attributes that meet already-defined requirements, the process of identifying latent needs is seldom addressed. This article attempts to operationalise attractive quality creation in its earliest stage by focusing on how to identify latent needs. The design literature takes a different approach to understanding latent needs, interpreted by the author as a ‘competence perspective’. Inspired by the competencies attributed to designers, this article introduces this perspective into the investigation of attractive quality creation. Drawing on the theory of attractive quality, an analytical framework is proposed to investigate how a competence perspective in general, and design competencies in particular, can contribute to the identification of latent needs. It was discovered that while design competencies related to mindset seem to play important roles for the identification of latent needs, the quality literature – and in particular the literature on customer orientation – tends to be tool-oriented and lacks focus on mindset. Although many design competencies seem useful for understanding latent needs, it is questioned whether these are linked to specific professions.

Keywords:

• attractive quality creation
• design competency
• customer satisfaction
• latent needs
• user-centred design
• professional competence
• proactive customer research
• mindset

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions and also Professor Noriaki Kano for useful comments on a previous version of the article presented at the 12th International Conference, Quality Management and Organizational Development in Verona 2009.