Data Driven Decisions

Chapter 18Customer Affinity and Context Diagrams

First, I am going to present the customer‐affinity process as it relates to systems engineering, followed by the nuances of how this process can change based on the three different industry examples that are driven by clients with whom I have worked. The three examples I will use will be the media, industrials, and logistics verticals.

It is important to remember that the customer‐affinity process is fundamentally an input‐driven process. The process requires the systems engineer, in this case, the business investor or executive, to collect inputs that customers have given. This assumes that these inputs are available and that some level of research has been done that reaches a high level of quality, which indicates that the inputs coming from the customer‐affinity process are accurate.

Step 1 with the customer affinity process is to take these inputs – different statements by the customer, generally collected through a survey which can be as few as five and as many as five million – and to group them into overarching benefits that the customer is seeking.

In a rudimentary example of a building, one would consider that the customer is looking for a safe building, a sturdy building, or a building that has certain square footage and amenities. If it is a residential building, they would want certain kinds of fixtures or architectural components that might make it feel more luxurious. All of these would be unique categories that ...