Kundinvolvering i högteknologiska produktutvecklingsprojekt
Background: Knowledge of customer needs is a key factor in companies? struggle to develop successful products. Several studies illustrate that the main reason for failure in product development is lack of customer understanding. Lately considerable changes have occurred. Large-scale mass production is continuously being replaced by customer orientation, especially in the high technological market. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to analyze customer involvement in high technological product development projects. Research method: The study was conducted by realizing seven qualitative interviews at three different companies related to telecommunication. Result: Customers are involved in product development projects in different ways and to different extends. The involvement is carried out in two main ways; either by planned meetings, demanded direct involvement, or by market and sales departments, not demanded involvement. The characteristics of the customer involvement is primarily dependent on the sort of new product being developed, the character of the development process as well as the design of the project model in terms of duration and control.