Don Rickert Research & Design

About Don Rickert Research & Design (Summary)

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We are a Design Research, Consumer Insights, UX (User Experience) and NPD (New Product Development) Firm...Yes that includes Usability Evaluation!

Putting it as simply and directly as possibly, we help other companies...

• To understand what your customers, consumers and/or users really care about
• To determine whether or not they care about what you are planning to sell them.
• To discover what it will take to bring your new product vision in line with your customers' and consumers' true needs and desires (and what are they willing to pay?)

Contact us NOW: drickert@bellsouth.net; (404) 713-3750

Before you continue to shop around, see our endorsements and recommendations.

Want more details about our methods, process, and so forth? We've got your details RIGHT HERE!

See What We are Doing to Keep Our Own Product Divisions Solvent

It is no secret that small businesses, and that includes consulting companies like ours, are navigating through challenging times. There is not much we can do about the consulting business, but there are things we can do with the online retail enterprise, which we own (Musical Instruments: www.fiddleandbowstore.com).

Note: Don Rickert Research & Design owns a number of inception-stage and more mature enterprises.

Go to www.fiddleandbowblog.com, regardless of whether or not you care about violins, to see some of the new approaches we have taken to keep prices at a reasonable level AND take the sting out of buying musical instruments (violins and fiddles primarily) for customers.

Process

Since every consulting engagement is different, and our clients have their own product development processes, there is no single process. That being said, when developing our own products we do follow a specific NPD process, summarized on the diagram below. The diagram is a good way to organize communication of all of the things we can do FOR YOU. Click on the diagram for more...

About Don Rickert Research & Design (the details)...

We are a Design Research, Consumer Insights, UX (User Experience) and NPD (New Product Development) Firm...sometimes our type of company is called a "full-service Industrial Design" firm.

See our Portfolio of mostly Interactive and Transactional Systems, as well as the other Portfolios using the links on the left of the screen...Interactive and Transactional Systems are a VERY small part of the product universe!

Contact: drickert@bellsouth.net; (404) 713-3750

Don Rickert Research & Design is a division, often called a "DBA" (doing business as...) of Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC. Don Rickert Research & Design helps other companies to create successful goods and services.

We are a Research and Design firm that provides New Product Development (NPD) services to companies that want to create a successful new product (or fix a flawed or outmoded existing product).

Much of our work is in the basic areas of interactive media (e.g. websites) and online transactional systems, such as those used in the financial services and supply chain industries. We do, however, often assist in the development of physical products. We also invent, design and develop our own products.

Often beginning with Ethnography (observing and interviewing people on their own turf), we identify what is missing in your customers' lives—opportunities for you to fill critical gaps between what is and what could be…if you only knew. But we don't stop there—we work with your teams to transform those previously hidden opportunities into breakthrough products. Download Don Rickert Research & Design Ethnography Examples with Design Insights

Much of our work is in the realm of USER EXPERIENCE (UX), with an emphasis on usefulness, usability and appeal (desirability), the three main components of VALUE to customers. Drawing from our extensive experience with interactive products as well as physical goods, we carry out the appropriate QUANTITATIVE, QUALITATIVE and HYBRID (a mix of quantitative and qualitative research, such as usability evaluation...we are one of the rare firms with expert skill in advanced quantitative methods as well as qualitative approaches) consumer research services. Then, we integrate the discoveries from the various approaches into ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS that you can use.

Some of the methods we employ are:

• usability evaluation (more...)
• card-sorting studies and analysis (called Cluster Analysis) to determine optimal terminology (e.g. names for buttons and controls, etc.) (more...)
• observing real people doing real things with current versions of YOUR product and competitors' products (ethnography, depth interviewing, etc.) (more...)
• prototyping, model building (more...)
• interviewing (structured as well as Depth Interviewing)
• questionnaire design, implementation and analysis
• and all the rest... (see Methods & Technical Expertise)

Our work boils down to discovering what you really need to know to win with a groundbreaking product, just as we have helped a number of other companies to create successful goods and services.

Ethnography Examples: Don Rickert Research & Design

The document, which you may download, describes a number of ethnographic studies (WITH THE IMPORTANT DESIGN INSIGHTS) conducted by Don Rickert Research & Design or in which we participated significantly.

Download Don Rickert Research & Design Ethnography Examples with Design Insights

Don Rickert's Resume

Download Dr. Don Rickert's Current Resume (MS Word)

Download Resume (Adobe PDF)

Do You Have any of these Problems?

These are all symptoms of a product that is not perceived as useful and/or not easy to use and/or unattractive and/or unappealing. Don Rickert Research & Design has the experience, know-how and process to address all of these problems.

• Your Baby is Ugly and You Know It

You know that your product is ugly, hard-to-use or lacks important features and you need fast, actionable advice on how to make your product more useful, usable and or attractive.

• Customer Complaints
• Reduction in Units Sold (or Reduction in 'Page Hits')
• High Shopping Card 'Bail-out' Rate
• Complaints from the Sales Force
• Returns
• Swamped Call Center

You are having high volume of complaints to Customer Service and you need to know what is wrong and how to make it right--fast! An overwhelmed Call Center usually points to a serious usability or customer appeal problem with a product.

• Most Customers Don't Respond to Your Satisfaction Surveys
• Those Who Do Respond Give You Low Ratings
• Less than 100% Repeat Business
• Friction Between Product Management and Engineering
• Your Product Is Not What You Thought that Engineering Was Building

The Essential Questions in New Product Development

Every company with a product needs good answers to certain basic questions. This is true regardless of whether the product is an online application, a web site, a gadget, a violin or a boat.

How you go about answering these essential questions can make the difference between success and failure. Click here for a discussion of the right and wrong way to seek the answers.

• If you have a current product, how do people really use it? 
• How do people use your competitors' products? 
• What are the attributes of products in your space that delight customers?
• Will anybody care about your new product?
• Who are these people?
• What are the real problems that people want to solve with products like yours, especially the hidden requirements (the “must-haves” that nobody thinks to tell you about until after you get it wrong!)?
• What are the "enragers" (the things that will make people hate your product)?
• What do consumers think that your products should look, feel, and even sound like?
• How should it behave?
• Will people pay enough for your product for you to make money?

These questions all boil down to a single question... “What attributes does a new product need in order for it to be seen as valuable and appealing to people?”

Finding the Answers to the Essential Questions

There are really good ways to find out the answers to the Essential Questions of New Product Development and some not so good ways.

Great Ways

• Engage Observational Research Experts (Ethnography Experts) to go out into the real world and observe real people, conducting Depth Interviews whenever possible
• Use the insights gained from expertly conducted real world observation (ethnography) to iteratively design and evaluate (for usefulness, usability and desirability) potential products to address peoples' real needs and desires.
• Confirm all of the above with appropriate quantitative research and analysis...often this will involve questionnaires, card-sorting, formal usability testing where quantitative measurements are taken.

Pretty Good Ways

• Engage Observational Research Experts (Ethnography Experts) who have performed prior studies related to your business to provide advice and brainstorm with you.
• Use the insights gained from consulting advice and brainstorming to iteratively design and evaluate (for usefulness, usability and desirability) potential products to address peoples' real needs and desires.
• Confirm all of the above with appropriate quantitative research and analysis.

Moderately Ineffective

• Hand the problem off to your Usability, Design or User Experience group (unless one or more of these groups has formal training in Ethnography at least 1,000 collective hours of DOING Ethnography or similar Observational Field Research)

Extremely Ineffective Ways

• Hand the problem off to Product Management
• Ask your spouse, relatives, friends what they think
• Ask the Senior Management team what they think
• Read seemingly relevant articles

The Most Risky Way Possible

• Go with you "gut".

Types of Organizations and Products We Have Worked On

 

Types of Organizations Broadcast Media Technology Telecommunications Camping and Adventure Gear Communications Publishing Energy Research & Development Interactive Television        Consumer Electronics Cable TV CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Insurance Medical Higher Education Financial Services Professional Services Interactive Media Supply Chain Management Food Retail (i.e. Grocery Stores) Musical Instrument Manufacturers Urban Planning & Design

Types of Products Bank automation Online Rate Quote for auto insurance Teller systems Self-service point-of-sale systems ATMs Medical informatics Wireless devices and other consumer products Handheld remote controls Interactive television user experience Online insurance Consumer banking, and other forms of e-commerce such as online retail Musical instrument design (e.g. electric violins, baritone violins and ground-breaking acoustic instruments) Rowing innovations Web-based Transactional Systems (Client-Server and Hybrid Client-Server        applications running in web browsers) Corporate Websites (informational) Training Systems

Our own New Product Development

Don Rickert Research & Design also does its own in-house product development and manufacture (in conjunction with its joint venture partner firm, Fiddarci Lutherie in Helena, AL). Ground-breaking stringed musical instruments, electronic music gear and specialized adventure equipment (e.g. high-performance rowing craft) have been our initial areas of focus.

Once an area of focus seems to have potential, it is spun off as a separate division with its own identity. To date, the most well-established "spin-off" company is Rickert & Ringholz Musical Instruments, which has earned an international reputation for innovative modern violins. About half of its customers are in Japan, Australia, EU countries and Denmark. Some of the most highly regarded musicians in the world own and perform on instruments, sold under the Rickert & Ringholz(tm), Rickert & Jones(tm) and Don Rickert-Fiddarci Lutherie(tm) brands.

There are about 25 Patent Pending applications in various stages of progress for the various musical instruments. The curious reader can see and hear cutting-edge bowed string instruments being played by visiting  (YouTube www.youtube.com/user/DoctorFiddle). The official website is now www.FiddleandBowBlog.com. The online store is www.FiddleandBowStore.com.

The other two spin-offs, just getting under way (AND GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES) are:

• Adventure Rowing(tm) (website is www.AdventureRowing.com): You can see various photos from a sea trial of one of Don Rickert's rowing craft prototype on the temporary website. This boat can handle 3+ foot ocean swells and is faster than an Alden Ocean Shell, something thought to be impossible for an inflatable boat.
• MusiqElectroniq(tm): The website is www.MusiqElectroniq.com.
  

We don't just talk about invention and innovation in New Product Development (NPD), but we DO IT!

WHY VIOLINS AND BOATS?

In order to save you the trouble of having to ask what our involvement in these niche products has to do with Design Research and Product Development consulting, you may want to look at the page entitled "Why Violins and Boats?".