This memo was sent after Jennifer Black, Amy’s supervisor, asked Amy how her Needs Analysis was coming along on the new spaghetti-making machine. Date: September 1, 1998 To Jennifer Black From Amy Alcorn Subject Needs Analysis The purpose of this memo Is to Inform you, Jennifer Black, about my, Amy Alcorn’s, progress on the Needs Analysis for TeamUSA’s new spaghetti-making machine. As you know TeamUSA’s Needs Analysis has SIX steps. These steps are: 1 . defining the scope of the effort, 2. gathering raw data from customers, 3. interpreting the raw data in terms of customer needs, . rganizing the needs into a hierarchy of primary, secondary, and (if necessary tertiary needs, 5. establishing the relative importance of the needs, and 6. reflecting on the results and the process. I am currently working on step 3, interpreting the raw data. There are five guidelines that TeamUSA uses: 1. express the need in terms of what the product has to do, not in terms of how it might do it, 2. express the need as specifically as the raw data, 3. use positive, not negative, phrasing, 4. express the need as an attribute of the product, 5. avoid the words must and should.
I have followed these guidelines in studying the customer surveys we have collected. It appears that the primary customers need a machine that is easy to clean, has simple to follow instructions, is easy to store, and is easy to set up. You can see that each of these needs follows the company guidelines. I am continuing to work on this task. Business Memo Sample.
