As user needs become increasingly diverse, product states must evolve to keep pace with these changes to help companies maintain competitiveness in the market. However, predicting heterogeneous needs and adapting existing products to emerging scenarios remain challenging. This study employs TRIZ’s evolutionary trends of needs to identify need elements, constructs a structured need model using Extenics tools, and develops an extension-driven methodology for expanding need elements. Furthermore, by integrating TRIZ’s Substance-Field Model and 76 Standard Solutions, this study proposes systematic design improvements for existing products to follow the novel need scenarios. A boom sprayer design case is presented to validate the method. The results indicate that the combination of TRIZ and Extenics enhances the ability of products to meet dynamic market needs. Provided theoretical and practical frameworks for product innovation.
Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.