The PDMA Handbook of Innovation and New Product Development, 4th Edition

CHAPTER SIXTEEN HOW TO LEVERAGE THE RIGHT USERS AT THE RIGHT TIME WITHIN USER-CENTRIC INNOVATION PROCESSES

Andrea Wöhrl, Sophia Korte, Michael Bartl, Volker Bilgram and Alexander Brem

16.1 Introduction

User-centricity has become a key imperative in innovation, with many companies emphasizing this principle in their mission and vision statements. In order to successfully create user-centric products and services, it is crucial to integrate users into the innovation process. This article provides innovation managers with guidance on the how and when of user integration, focusing on identifying and motivating the right users at the right time within the innovation process. Based on a literature review and four case studies of user-centric innovation projects, we introduce a framework for user integration.

Empirical and practical evidence demonstrates that users can be a valuable source of innovation at all stages of the innovation process. However, not all users are equally suited for each phase of the innovation process. Depending on the task to be tackled in the innovation project, innovation managers need to recruit and activate different user types and attribute different roles to them in the innovation process (e.g. for idea generation or idea testing) (Frow et al. 2015; Fuchs and Schreier 2011). For example, an average consumer may be overtaxed by the task of evaluating highly ...