4. Tools and methods for dealing with users and needs

This question has several aims:

• The first is to identify the parties concerned in general, detailing direct and indirect users;

• a second aims to identify their needs and consider how they might be common or contradictory.

Two approaches can be distinguished:

• a starting point based on the product (analysis of its components and functions reveals its direct and indirect users and the needs it does or does not meet);

• a departure from direct and indirect users, whose needs often exceed existing products.