Building Lead-User Research into an Innovation Platform
The real exciting thing about the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) is that we’re trying to figure out how processes work from a systems perspective and then provide a real-world environment where those systems can be innovated upon. More than the typical action-oriented research that just takes one slice of one issue and follows the thread down the rabbit hole, we’re providing a platform that generates true collaboration; bringing in disparate, and often times analogous points-of-view into our experimentation process.
Part of my research of late has included studying the lead-user phenomena. (For background on lead-user innovation, ready my blog entry from last December.) Intuitively, my gut says that employing a lead-user strategy will enable us to rapidly prototype those robust and systemic solutions at the business model level we’re talking about. I believe that tapping into lead-users will allow us to front-load the experimentation process and allow us to run early experiments that force organizational interactions, communication and joint problem-solving among individuals and groups separated in space and time.
Recently, I traveled to Harvard with BIF chief catalyst Saul Kaplan to spend some time with BIF research advisor Stefan Thomke and MIT professor Eric von Hippel. Stefan is a leading authority on the management of technology and product innovation. He’s the author of Experimentation Matters and his research and writings have focused on the process, economics, and management of experimentation in innovation. Eric is professor and head of the innovation and entrepreneurship group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He specializes in research related to the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation. His book, Democratizing Innovation, looks closely at this system of user-centered innovation.
Our conversation followed two tracks: first, how lead-user communities can play a major role in the development (or transformation) of entire systems or experiences. The second - and far more challenging part of our chat - focused on how a parallel experimentation strategy that takes into account the heterogeneous and widely-dispersed environment of lead-users could be used to feed into our real-world experimentation environment. We quickly devolved into a debate about the role of the integrator in the innovation process. (I blogged about that last week.)
Now Stefan will tell you that earlier experimentation forces organizations toward earlier integration. I’m actively looking at what it would take to build a capability that systematically searches for and evaluates lead user-generated innovations within a given system. Because when you have a high-fidelity environment like ours, you need to decide what experiments you want to run ahead of time. And I believe this is an area where lead-user innovation is critical. It’s a proven way to get to the advanced analogous markets that everyone talks about as a source for breakthrough innovation.
I’ll be meeting next month with two of the leading thinkers on lead-user innovation - Marion Pötz and Christoph Hienerth. Both hail from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics & Business Administration. If you’re looking to deepen your understanding of the phenomenon of user innovation, their site is a great destination.
[Image Source: KathleenCEO at Flickr]
Posted January 29, 2008 11:56 AM by Chris Flanagan | Permalink
