The process starts with the analysis of the own industry. In many industries the products and services of the companies hardly differ from each other. The customer is spoilt for choice and select the least expensive provider. The goal of this process step is the identification of innovation gaps.

This process step includes the identification of the stakeholders across the value chain and their core jobs. The goal of this process step is to select customer groups for them the company wants to create added value.

Not all needs of a specific customer group are equally important. Unfulfilled needs have huge potential for innovation, over-fulfilled needs have high potential for savings. The goal of this process step is to prioritize and to select customer needs. These customer needs have to be satisfied with a product or service.

In order that a product or service becomes an economic success it is necessary to meet customer needs precisely. Therefore, it is important to know which jobs customers have to carry out and what are the challenges of these jobs. The needs must not be confused with the feedback received. The goal of this process step is the identification of solution-neutral customer needs.

Some of the identified and prioritized customer needs are already fulfilled with existing products and services. In this process step the identified customer needs will be compared with the features of existing products and services. This determines if existing products and services should be further developed or a completely new development is necessary.

The inputs from the previous process steps are the basis for developing new ideas and for setting up a development project for the implementation. Thereby the focus is on the efficient project management up to the time of the market launch of the product or service.