[AI-Driven New Business Creation] Qualiteg's Original Method for Effectively Comparing Customer Problems

Hello to everyone visiting the Qualiteg blog. I'm Michele. In my work on AI-driven new business development and marketing, there are questions I hear from clients again and again. Through this blog, I would like to offer my own answers to the challenges that anyone considering an AI-based business is likely to face.

One question I am often asked is how to compare the customer problems that have been identified. In this post, I would like to talk about how you should go about comparing customer problems.

First, Research the Market Size of Substitute Use Cases

For each of the problems you have identified, research how large a market the problem, or its solution, could capture.

Even if a use case looks unrelated at first glance, if users are already paying money to solve that problem, then you can say that a substitute market exists.

In this case, we take

"How can we make people recognize that, even if their e-bike runs out of power, they can find the location of a station, and that even a short ride gives them a proper workout that helps them lose weight?"

as the customer problem to validate, and research the market size of the "short-workout weight-loss market".

Next, Look for Synergies with Your Existing Businesses

Next, consider how much synergy there is with your company's existing businesses.
Check whether the new service you are planning can leverage the technology, operational know-how, and customer base (such as your user segments) of the businesses your company already runs.

If the area is entirely new to you, your company has no accumulated know-how, and the hurdles for service planning, market entry, and marketing become considerably higher. So, to answer the fundamental question of whether it makes sense for your company to pursue this new business, examine the synergies with your existing businesses.

Successful innovation requires an accurate grasp of the challenges and possibilities unique to each company. Innovation-Cross from Qualiteg Inc. is a program that thoroughly analyzes a company's internal and external environments and designs the optimal co-creation approach. We survey industry dynamics, technology trends, and the competitive landscape from multiple angles, and propose innovative solutions through external collaboration for challenges that are hard to solve alone.

Drawing on a variety of approaches, including idea workshops, hackathon planning, and the use of cutting-edge AI technology, we deliver value creation by optimally combining resources inside and outside your organization. Our experienced specialist consultants develop a deep understanding of your challenges and possibilities and guide you to solid results.

Then, Examine Your Company's Feasibility

As the final step of the research, I would like to talk about feasibility, which is critically important.

To begin with, ask questions such as:

• Does this market show a willingness to pay on the part of customers, that is, is it likely to hold up as a market?
• Can the service be developed with the technology your company already has?
• If your company cannot do it alone, are there companies you could outsource to?
• Roughly how much would those companies charge?
• Comparing development costs against projected revenue, is the business likely to be profitable?
• Is the price your company could offer likely to be accepted by the market?

In this way, you check for the presence of existing businesses (including those of other companies), the challenges they face in their business development, how well-founded the user needs are, how much users would pay to solve the problem, the maturity of your own technology, and so on.

Finally, Score the Research Results and Compare

Enter the research results in a table, score them, and compare.

Assign high scores to the metrics that matter most to your company and lower scores to those that matter less, and turn the results into numbers.

With a list built around the various customer problems and rough solution ideas for each, the scores for the items your company values will come into view, and the market you should enter will naturally become clear to you as well.

Thank you very much for reading this column to the end. At Qualiteg, we provide training and consulting on AI technology and on how to plan new businesses. If this has caught your interest, or if you have specific requests, please feel free to contact us through the inquiry form here.

We also run a popular workshop for those who want to master the steps of creating a new business. The training focuses on having each participant think about the business from an executive's perspective, and the content is designed not only for planners but also for their counterparts in engineering, design, and marketing.

We look forward to hearing from you. Please stay tuned for the next column.