Getting Ideas from Users

the frustration experienced by users...can be channeled to create ideas and prototypes for innovations.

A potential source of innovation can be frustration: the frustration experienced by users who want something additional or different from the products and services they use. This can be channeled to create ideas and prototypes for innovations.

For example, Linux is not a product developed by a large corporation, but the result of collaboration among a community of users who wanted software that better suited their needs, and they continue improving and updating it.

Going to an older example: the pickup truck was not invented in Detroit by the large American car companies, but emerged on farms where farmers had bought the early trucks, stripped out the seats, taken off the roof, and improvised a truck more suited to their farm needs.

ACTION POINT: Work with "lead users" to capture their insights and prototypes. During process innovation inside the organization, use suggestion programs to capture employee ideas. Use web communities-- "crowd sourcing" -- to help create ideas for innovation or improve on what is already there.