A real need is not always a priority
Why needs uncovered with customers may not remain widely important when weighed against other needs.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH · GEORGE EICH INSTITUTE
Your customers have many needs. Which ones deserve your resources?
The Need Gap 2026 shows why listening to customers is not the same as knowing where to invest. Discover what 1,423 assessed needs reveal about strategic relevance.
- Real customer evidence
- Prioritization insights
- Core, expansion and innovation
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INSTITUTE
THE NEED GAP 2026
Needs are abundant. What is scarce is evidence of relevance to guide investment decisions.
1,423Needs selected for quantitative assessment
59FocusMaps analyzed
80.32%of needs were prioritized by fewer than 30% of customers
THE NEED GAP 202601 / RELEVANCE 02 / EVIDENCE 03 / APPLICATION
What you will find in the ebook
What the data actually says
How to interpret customer volume, fulfillment evidence and the risk of treating isolated requests as broad priorities.
Where to allocate resources
How to examine relevant needs across Core Business, expansion, innovation and portfolio decisions.
Eight out of ten assessed needs did not show enough shared relevance to become broad strategic priorities across the researched customer bases.
Before the roadmap
Which needs justify new initiatives?
Before investing
How much of the customer base actually prioritizes this need?
Before expanding
Is the same need relevant in the new market?
Before your next priority, examine relevance.
Explore the evidence from The Need Gap 2026 and use the research to ask better questions about your portfolio.
Access the ebookScope: 1,423 needs previously selected by companies for quantitative research in 59 FocusMaps. The study examines customer-reported prioritization; it is neither a count of all initially discovered qualitative needs nor a probabilistic sample of the wider market.