Pain Points of Customers in Asia and the USA

Bachelor Thesis, Master Thesis or Project Study

📌 Key facts

• Mission: Identify the biggest challenges of humanity, the world, organisations, society, and the economy. • When: Start anytime. Applications are open! • How to apply: Send us an e-mail (at the end of this page) with your CV and a grade report and a tentative research idea (research question, data and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)

Contents

• 💡 Background
• 🦾Who We Are
• 🎯 Goals
• 🎓 Profile
• 📚 Further Reading
• 📄 Requirements to any Work
• 📬 How to Apply

💡 Background

While we believe to understand many of the pain points customers have in Germany, maybe even Europe, users, customers, citizens of American and Asian states likely have unique needs and wants. For German organizations to go global and German value creation research to have a starting point we want to research customer pain points in the US and/or Asia. The continents hold the world's largest economies and the underlying companies which are already solving local customers' pain points. Your research should be the first step towards a better global understanding of customers' needs abroad.

🦾Who We Are

The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on doing research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future. Topics such as Agile Organizations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership and Teams. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies and organizations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.

🎯 Goals

• Research academic literature on the topic
• Compile an overview of societal/individual pain points
• Analyse these along chosen drivers and impact factors
• Discuss what solution approaches are being discussed

🎓 Profile

• Reliable and self-driven
• Enthusiasm for UX Design / Product Design / Customer Research / Design Thinking
• Ability to do sophisticated internet, desk research, and connect with practitioners
• Passion to learn more about the future and do research with impact

📚 Further Reading

Disruption Starts with Unhappy Customers, Not Technology

For eight years I've visited leading companies in more than 20 industries around the world that claimed to be in the process of being disrupted. Each time, I'd ask the executives of these incumbent companies the same question: "What is disrupting your business?"

hbr.org

From Pain to Gain: Solving Customer Pain Points Through User-Centered Design

As UX designers on VMware's End-User Computing User Experience (EUC UX) team, one of our most powerful tools is perhaps our ability to engage with and receive direct feedback from our customers. Through a series of surveys, interviews, and email communication, nothing helps our team gain more insight into end users' real-world challenges and every day experiences than direct interaction.

medium.com

The 3 Big Financial Pain Points Of Americans

If you look only at the nation's low, 3.7% unemployment rate, it would be easy to assume that the economy's humming and that Americans are feeling great about their finances. But after reviewing five recent notable surveys, I believe many people are actually feeling three big financial pain points now.

www.forbes.com

Addressing society’s pain points: An interview with the CEO of Ayala Corporation

For more than three decades, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and CEO of the Philippines' oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corporation, has overseen a diverse portfolio of companies that includes real estate, banking, telecommunications, water, healthcare, and power. His tenure has been marked by a conviction to orient the company toward what he calls society's "pain points."

www.mckinsey.com

📄 Requirements to any Work

We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of a bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:

• Infograph - visually represent some of your work (find examples here)
• Slide Deck - summarize your research and possibly present it
• Extract most important sequences from podcasts, videos, and other media
• 3-4 Tweets about the most important findings and summarizing the topic
• optional: Medium Article - let people outside university know about your research and start your personal brand

📬 How to Apply

If you are interested, please contact Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (e-mail below) by submitting your CV and grade report. Please also briefly outline your tentative research idea (research question, data and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)

We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!

👉 welpe@tum.de