Customer Interviewing: Tips and Techniques

 Members-Only Roundtable

 Wednesday,  June 11, 2008

5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Rivers Club, One Oxford Centre-4th floor

301 Grant St., Pittsburgh PA 15219 

Satisfying customer needs is the essence of successful business. Customer interviewing is a commonly used way to identify and understand their needs. It follows that knowing who to ask, what to ask and how to ask is critical to achieving success. Whether you're new to conducting interviews with customers or a highly experienced practitioner, there is always something new to learn from others.

In this PSN Member Roundtable, we've invited two practitioners - Julie Gulick, Product Planning Manager and Marc Mabie, Project Manager - with medical device maker MEDRAD to share how they maximize the return on customer interviews. They will present their best practices, lessons learned and experiences with customer interviewing, and answer questions from the moderator and attendees.

Topics that will be covered:

• Selecting customers to interview
• Asking customers to participate
• Planning the customer interviews
• Conducting the interview
• Questions to ask and to avoid
• Getting the most from the interviews
• Who should be involved
• Best practices
• Common mistakes 

You will have ample opportunity to ask the practice masters your specific questions throughout the roundtable meeting.

ABOUT THE PRACTICE MASTERS

Julie Gulick is a Product Planner in the Molecular Imaging Group at MEDRAD leading product definition of new injector products via voice of the customer (including ethnographic research, interviewing, and surveying customers). Over her 15+ year career in the medical device industry she has held positions as design engineer, sales and marketing manager, product manager and product planner. Ms. Gulick has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Marc Mabie is a project manager in the Molecular Imaging Group at MEDRAD. Over his 12+ year career, Mr. Mabie has served as a new product launch manager with Marconi and Fore Systems, and a Product Engineer with Fore Systems. He has a MBA from the Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University.

AGENDA

5:30 to 6:00 pm Networking over food/beverages

6:00 to 6:15 Opening remarks and introductions

6:15 to 7:45 Brief Presentation and Q&A

7:45 to 8:00 Recap

8:00 to 8:30 Additional networking

This roundtable is limited to 20 PSN Members.

FEES AND REGISTRATION

This roundtable is limited to PSN Members only. Capacity is 20 attendees. 

PSN Members can attend at no charge. (See PSN Membership to join.)

Pre-registration is required.  PSN Members can register online or by sending an e-mail to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it.

After you register, you will receive further details for participating in this Roundtable event about one week prior to the program.

CANCELLATIONS

Please let us know in advance if you need to cancel so we can open your seat for another member. Write to us at events@productstrategynetwork.com.

QUESTIONS:

Contact the PSN by e-mail at events@productstrategynetwork.com, or by phone: 1-888-580-3329, ext. 2.