ABSTRACT
The fact that foundation of Lean is built from the gemba is a foundational principle of Lean that merits repeating and emphasis. Observing a customer or end user of a product is a bit different than a simple gemba. In a traditional Lean manufacturing facility, the gemba is the factory floor. The observational and immersive techniques should be preferred to the more common customer-feedback practices of surveys and focus groups. These Lean Innovation Gemba Methods are specifically designed to eliminate and mitigate these biases and phenomena. Human-Centered Design calls this immersion. The principal purpose of engaging with experts is to acquire additional context about the end-user group including their goals, challenges, and constraints. While the insights we get from experts will likely be captured in their ideas expressed within the context of an interview, the benefits we get from extreme and mainstream users comes from studying their behavior.
