Folks in the telecom space spend a lot of time these days discussing customer experience. Figuring out exactly what customers want or need, however, is no small feat.

Companies often build the solutions they think will resonate in the marketplace, but are surprised when their efforts don’t meet with expected adoption. That can be because they don’t do their research, or because they’re doing the wrong kind of research.

That’s according to Dustin Walper, co-founder and director of product for Myplanet, a small, Toronto-based user experience outfit that helps companies in the telecom arena do product research and design. Walper met with TMCnet this week at ITEXPO in Miami.

Companies come to Myplanet when they want to launch an online offering that is disruptive, says Walper. Myplanet helps with that by doing in-depth interviews with the telecom company’s customers to get a handle on what kind of solutions would best meet their needs. MyPlanet can also help a telecom company design a product, or can do the entire design and offer the solution to the telecom company on a wholesale basis.

CenturyLink is one of the companies with which Myplanet is engaged. The organizations have been working together for about two years on various projects. One of those efforts related to the telco’s move into delivering platform as a service. Myplanet got involved by talking with CenturyLink customers and identifying other PaaS offers in the market.

While most research firms would attack the job by initiating customer surveys, says Walper, Myplanet does detailed, one-on-one interviews with customers, may visit the customer site to see how customers are using related solutions, and follows up with those customers during the life of the project.