Lead User Innovation

• Do you feel increased competition and strong pressure to come up with new breakthrough innovations?
• Do you find it difficult to get your business and technical people to think innovatively about their markets, products, services or processes?
• Do really effective solutions take too long to develop? Do your solutions make you uncertain as far as their probability of success?

The Lead User Research methodology, originated by Dr. Eric von Hippel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is now an important area in industrial practice and academic study, internationally. The process uncovers stronger or already-developed solutions to problems or needs relative to traditional concept generation methods. These potentially more effective product, process or service concepts are generated by finding and collaborating with lead users. Lead users typically have already developed solutions themselves because no currently available product fulfilled their advanced needs. Moreover, they personally benefited from the solution, which created high motivation to innovate. Dr. von Hippel’s research demonstrated that significant commercial successes had their origins with 'lead user' inventions. A third-party study found that projects based on this method resulted in eight times higher projected sales than projects with traditional methods.(link to article)

Our team includes those experienced in getting results using Lead User Research. Their work for 3M’s Medical-Surgical Division was documented in an HBR article and a Harvard Business Case.

Our team uses proven digital methods, which allow faster discovery of lead users at lower cost. Also, adapting key concepts from our other innovation offerings provides customized options that give you the 'best of the best' approaches to generating solutions with distinct advantage.

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