Towards lead-user driven innovation
Quick note: I find myself intrigued by Eric von Hippel’s thoughts about lead-user driven innovation. In case you are interested, here’s a good summary of his latest book and here two of his books as free pdf downloads.
Very relevant stuff for our Nokia Beta Labs.
I wonder how we should:
a) identify the lead users / top contributors of Beta Labs
b) give credit to them (public recognition? rewards?)
c) offer an opportunity for them to get more closely involved in Nokia R&D process
Note to self: figure it out.
Very true for a wide range of industries!
Sometimes I get the feeling that a big wave is approaching, that will change the landscape…
Your post made me hear that noise again…
Comment by Aron — September 7, 2007 @ 4:44 pm
Quite intimate post, Tommi:-)
1. What is the exact relationship between Beta Labs and R & D dept?
2. Do you have a promotional activities budget?
3. Do you know something about the latest widsets dept promotion (the one with lots of N93 prizes)? Think they got a lot of traffic, recognition, good things after that campaign.
Cheers!
Comment by Horia stanescu — September 7, 2007 @ 7:38 pm
You can’t always give a user what they want. Sometimes you have to push a new idea out there and see how they react. That is where interesting things happen and why I think you’re a very lucky guy.
Listening to users and making a product will yield stable sales and stales in innovation.
Creating something, throwing it out there, listening to the reactions and then building something together with them … now you’re onto something.
Comment by Stefan Constantinescu — September 7, 2007 @ 11:09 pm
Congrats on the new job, I am very excited to what will come out of Nokia Beta Labs.
With regards to your a), b) and c) questions - are you familiar with the approach Lego chose when developing Lego Mindstorms Nxt?
I realize Lego and Nokia may have somewhat different target audiences (Lego: engineers vs. Nokia: fashionistas?) for such an approach, but maybe Lego’s example can help you get started experimenting
Comment by Christopher — September 8, 2007 @ 12:13 am
Hi Tommi,
first of all: congratulations to your promotion. That’s certainly a hell of a job you got there.
On said book: I haven’t read it (I consider reading it though) but I believe there is a certain truth in the assumption that the best product designers are the users. That perception is not entirely new though. Marketeers always want to create products that exactly fulfill what users want. It’s a question on how to become aware of what users want.
One possible way certainly is to include users in the development process (or at least bring ‘em close) but my fear is that with this approach you mainly reach power users (innovators and early adopters). They, unfortunately, very often have a different view on how a product should look like compared to the main target group of a product - the early and late majority.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the Nokia Beta Labs are THE place for innovators. The hard part will be to figure out what of the outcome will make its way into a product. Good luck in convincing the product managers.
I wish you a great success and lots of fun with your new job.
Take care
Jens
Comment by Jens — September 8, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Horia asked:
> 1. What is the exact relationship between Beta Labs and R & D dept?
There are several R&D departments in Nokia, not just one. From R&D point of view, you can think Nokia Beta Labs as a publishing channel and a market research tool for Nokia R&D projects.
> 2. Do you have a promotional activities budget?
No, not yet.
> 3. Do you know something about the latest widsets dept promotion
I don’t, but I’ll ask them.
Comment by Tommi Vilkamo — September 10, 2007 @ 9:19 am
Stefan: yup, I think you need to have both “throwing it out there” innovation and “user driven” innovation. I think it’s not an either-or thing.
Christopher: thanks. You are the second one already to recommend me to check out Lego’s approach. Will do
Jens: thanks for your kind words! I agree, Beta Labs won’t be a solution for everything, and the feedback is likely to be biased, with power users overly represented. But that’s perfectly ok. Nokia won’t get rid of traditional mainstream-user focused market research - and I believe these two approaches will support nicely each other.
Comment by Tommi Vilkamo — September 10, 2007 @ 9:30 am