User-led Innovation: From a Firms' Lens on Current & Future Trends

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1 User-led Innovation: From a Firms' Lens on Current & Future Trends Nagwan Abu El-Ella, Valentin Fliess, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart The 12 th International Open and User Innovation Conference July 28 th - 30 th 2014, Harvard Business School

2 Introduction Nagwan Abu El-Ella - PhD student & research associate at the chair of innovation management and entrepreneurship at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management in Germany - A coach at SMILE (Selbst Management Initiative Leipzig) for supporting founders and young entrepreneurs - Research areas: user innovation, the implementation of open innovation, the roles of web tools and trust in employee invovlement in innovation, integrating external sources of knowledge in innovation Valentin Fliess MBA graduate from HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and psychologist (Dipl.-Psych.) from University of Konstanz - Master s thesis: Beyond user-led innovation: user co-creation concepts, bestpractices and trends - Work experience includes consulting and marketing/strategy

3 Study Objectives - Although user involvement within the innovation process is a widely discussed question in management literature, little is known about how companies are changing and applying diverse concepts, processes and methods to effectively co-create with users. - Therefore, this study researches selected aspects of how user co-creation is applied in practice to deduct best practices and identify relevant trends. The following questions are being researched accordingly: How are innovation processes shaped in practice and in which stages do companies mainly involve their users? How are users selected for co-creation? What are effective methods and tools for user co-creation in the process? What other challenges arise in the co-creation process and how can they be managed? What are the emerging trends for user co-creation?

4 Research Methodology - An qualitative exploratory study approach, based on expert interviews in combination with a literature research, is conducted. For the interviews 50 experts, from practice within Europe, were identified and contacted. - So far, 20 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted. - Expert interviews sample: Company Field Industry 9 Design/Innovation Consultancy 7 Strategy Consultancy 4 n

5 Initial Findings Findings can be structured under 5 main themes: 1. The main used user co-creation concepts 2. The degree of user involvement in the different phases of the innovation process 3. User-selection criteria 4. User co-creation methods & tools 5. Recent firm trends for user co-creation

6 User Co-Creation Process _ Though researched innovation processes generally follow a basic four-step logic, they are characterized by low rigidity, fuzzy gates and high iterativity: 1. Research 2. Ideation 3. Concept 3. Prototype & Test _ Level of user involvement within the innovation process follows a U-shaped pattern with higher involvement at the beginning and at the end and lower involvement in the middle of the process. Phases of divergent and convergent thinking allow an effective interaction of designer vision and user knowledge. _ Limited resources to involve users are a major constraint in user co-creation. The level of user involvement is scalable in breadth and depth accordingly but a minimum level is required to yield meaningful results.

7 User Selection & Characteristics While the involvement of current users is key for incremental innovation, the involvement of (extreme) lead users and potential future users is required for potentially disruptive innovation. Current User Lead User Future User _ To cover all groups, an anticipated early segmentation is required which needs to be evolved iteratively over the process. _ User competence is secondary if user research and co-creation is focused on user issues, needs and aspirations. As real value and possible solutions are often hard to express for users, a study of user behaviors is recommended. _ Users intrinsically motivated to show competence and have fun are generally more open to share their views than users who innovate for an economic benefit. Lack of openness can also hint relevant issues, needs and aspirations.

8 User Co-Creation Trends Innovation Incubators Mass Customization Open Organization Digitization Big Data

9 Thank you for your attention! Corresponding Author: HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management Nagwan Abu El-Ella, Valentin Fliess,