that bowl lead user research provides companies with a systematic process for developing breakthrough new products and services the co author is a busy exciting new tool are Eric von Hippel the MIT Sloan School of Management Mary sonic division scientist at 3m and Joan churchill an organizational psychologist in this introductory video you'll learn what lead user methods can do for your organization you'll hear how 3m divisions have benefited from lead user studies and see an example oven actually do users study carried out at 3am time lead user methodology evolved from Eric one hit balls path-breaking research into the sources and innovation his research showed that a select group a lead users have been the actual inventors a many of the most successful products and services for consumers and industry parlayed users read user's have two characteristics first they have a high incentive to solve a problem and so they may innovate after all you know necessity is the mother invention second they are ahead of the target market in an important dimension so that what
in the present is what the market as a whole will want in the future let me give you an example of one or two lead user innovations take Tim berners-lee the inventor of the World Wide Web Tam
needed hypertext and network computers for his own work that's why he developed it it was a lead user innovation because the market as a whole as you all know then followed and became a major cultural phenomenon during the course of a study team seek out lead users both within the target markets and lead users in analogous fields and other industries as well innovation in automotive braking systems illustrates the value of looking for lead users outside as well as within
your targeted markets many the safety features that we takin in into ordinary count nowadays in automobiles where actually developed in aerospace first for example the braking systems were developed their because the aircraft people cared a lot more about stopping in aircraft who was before the into the runway so you could see that the incentive to do the same stopping problem was there an air space as well but in an exaggerated form and you can bring it into the auto field from this advance analog market the team locates lead users using a telephone networking process it works a lot like tracking down a hot new story team members typically start out the search by getting allister expert names through such means as electronic searches scanning current trade journals or contacting their industry friends for some expert named then they simply begin calling people on the list in asking a question such as who do you know that is doing leading edge work on the subjective X I'm lead user studies enable 3m divisions to identify leading-edge market opportunities that were not apparent with traditional methods such as focus groups and large customer surveys studies have resulted in major new product approaches for a number of 3m divisions for example in one study just completed the result was a whole family of concepts for radically new products that will be brought to market soon into other recent ones the goal was opportunity identification in both these cases the team uncovered promising entry markets and applications for a very important new 3m technologies
lead user studies have also been used to identify long-range growth strategiesin fact that was one outcome on the medical products steady you learn about shortly now let's take a look at a lead users study carried out by three m's medical surgical division this division produces surgical drapes and other related a sepsis control products for the surgical setting our business unit in the medical surgical division lunch to lead user study to identify new approaches for preventing patient infections the decline in effectiveness have many antibiotics today makes this a very important problem in medicine for study a cross-functional team was assembled a top-notch people from product development marketing and manufacturing all team members had previously made major innovation contributions for medical-surgical business unit in phase 1 management and the research team do the homework to begin the lead user study the team and key managers in our business work closely together to define the general types of products and markets have interest and the level of innovation that was desired the team also did a scan of trade literature and talked with some other key customers these activities give us an overall sense if trends and market issues that would be really important to research during the study in phase 2 the lead user study is launched with an in-depth exploration have need related trends the goal is to identify a specific set of major needs the present strong new product or service opportunities during a trend investigation we cast our net broadly for expert and varied fields who could point us to cutting-edge market opportunities for example we interviewed a leading international expert on the dangers have antibiotic overuse we also consulted with the renowned expert in sources as skin contamination another very informative interview was it a prominent US Army Surgeon he was pioneering and non-invasive technique for actually nay gating potential sources the skin bacteria after about six weeks have been interviewing in reading teams go through an intensive process %uh be evaluating and selecting the needs that will be the focus of concept generation in the next phase is on the study in phase 3 the focus on the lead user study ships to acquiring new product and service ideas during this phase teams typically visit the sites have select lead users to observe first-hand their needs an innovative solution ideas at this point in our study our team realized that developing countries could present a major growth opportunity for our business and we had a lot more to learn about the health care needs in these regions sewing pairs team members fanned out to a number of different countries in Asia and South America we devoted a month to visiting hospitals and observing surgery he also interviewed experts in microbiology and infectious diseases in Malaysia for example we learned from lead user practitioners how with limited resources they achieved a very cost-effective an efficient infection prevention at the conclusion a phase 3 teams have a portfolio of promising solution concepts these concepts are further developed in the fourth and final phase of the study a lead user workshop is the central activity a phase 4 for the workshop a small group a lead users and top experts join the team to do intensive design work and problem-solving over a two- to three-day period we brought in a group B eleven lead users and leading experts from diverse fields for workshop this is the overall task we gave the attendees at the workshop for feel we've done that yeah at least three concepts with dynamic elements in them come out of here concepts about what product concepts that dramatically improved microbial control in the surgical settings up today and possibly tomorrow with significantly improved cost during the workshop small groups were formed to work on generating initial product concepts then every two to three hours the whole group convened to refinance evaluate the solution ideas that had been generated the lead user attendees were carefully selected for their leading-edge expertise in different aspects other workshop task a very dear the HD rio gets the better go get it every know but I he didn't do anything because I love mostly with navigation and 10 they say he's done discovered a groundout and wanted to make a nice officials and sector benchmark up was the developer have artificial skin and chemicals that enhance interaction with Ken we sell third 38,000 especially with this is the third largest hospital in the US Postal my patients till Bay yeah up next okay thanks to are you close to me yeah I ideal situation where there this here cause a lot of hugo's grapes doctor robert reich the leading veterinary surgeon he has achieved low infection rates and a very demanding conditions and even at low cost when I could bring to the group isn't do so silicone engineers and other materials in to cast fine archer they're here to this kid work with the skin the term casting her impassioned this is Mike to follow make-up specialist for Broadway productions we wanted his expertise in adhering materials to irregular skin surfaces after the lead user workshop teams to a final refinement of concepts and make their recommendations to management as a result of the lead users study and management developed a much better long-range business strategy in addition the study produced concepts for five different families have products and three these have progressed to prototype testing with customers as you have seen the lead user research process requires hard work and a very
talented team but when the goal is breakthrough lead user methods will put your firm on the fast track to exciting new products and services