Abstract
The success rate of new products or services can be increased only by a consequent orientation at the customer value: the customer needs drive the buying decision! Existing methods for customer need determination are not suitable for the development of novel products or services: after all, we have to find out customers preferences about something that does not exist yet. In this paper a methodology is presented which helps to identify systematically the customer needs and the relative customer requirements and how to define on their basis the functional requirements for product development. A practical example helps to illustrate the successful application of the approach.