fuzzy front end presentation for hfi contextual innovation team

Fuzzy Front End of Innovation

Rushikesh Kulkarni

Human factors international

Being innovative – What does it mean ?

Source : Creative business solution

How do I start …..??

Stage Gate Method

Example:

Where do these ideas/opportunity come from???

Example:

Courtesy : Phil Mc Kenney (VP, CTO Hewlett-Packard San Jose)

Distributed by Phil Mc Kenney creative commons : non commercial

Fuzzy Front End of Company

Source: Fuzzy Front End: Effective Methods, Tools, and Techniques. Peter A.Koen, Greg M.Ajamian, Scott Boyce,Allen Clamen, Eden Fisher, Stavros Fountoulakis, Albert Johnson, Pushpinder Puri, and Rebecca Seibert

Vision Opportunity Idea Concept

How does one have a vision which is sustainable ?

Which vision is better ?

New concept : Fuzzy Front End of Company


Fuzzy Front End : Comparing it with New Product Development

Is it good to have a Fuzzy Front End ?


How do companies deal with the Fuzzy Front End ?

• Idea centric

• Google

• Social

• Nokia

• Market/ technical / cold logic

• Intel

• Technology centric

• 3M

Fuzzy Front End

Customer

Market

Competitor

Trend

Portfolio

Design

Prototype

Evaluate

Business

Model

develop

Marketing Sales

Distribution

service

Ethnography/

Lead Users

Disruptive Diagnostics

Ideation

Current Practices

Work Around

Customer Needs

Design, business, marketing, sales, distribution check points

Market research

Design Research

Ideas Design

Creative Thinking

Problem Solving

Product/ Process/ System/ Service/ Environment Design

Co-design / Participatory Design

Lead Users

Dealing with Fuzzy Front End New Product Development Commercialization

©Rushikesh Kulkarni , Human factors international

Opportunity

Con

cept

Choke and

pressure points

Market Research

Technology Road mapping

Idea Wallets

Social Trends

Fuzzy Front End : Overlapping Input - Output, Expertise and Methods

Use research

Know your users

“Survival of the Fittest" as a synonym for

"natural selection“Charles Darwin

Introduction

“Innovate or perish ”

Introduction

Why users innovate?

Heterogeneous needs

Manufacture looks at only common needs and hence cannot cater to each customer.

Look for cheaper alternatives

Lead Users

"Lead Users" of a novel or enhanced product, process, or service have been defined (von Hippel 1986, 1988) as those who display two characteristics with respect to it:

They face needs that will be general in a marketplace - but face them months or years before the bulk of that marketplace encounters them

•Studies of problem-solving have shown, users who have real-world experience with a need can provide the most accurate data regarding it.

• When needs are evolving rapidly, as is the case in many high technology product categories, only users at the front of the trend will have experience with "tomorrow's needs today.“

They expect to benefit significantly by obtaining a solution to those needs.

•Studies of industrial product and process innovations (Mansfield 1968) show that those who expect a high benefit from a solution to a need tend to experiment with solutions on their own -and so can provide the richest need and solution data to inquiring market researchers

Lead Users: Example

Examples for commercial innovations created by Lead User development

Physical products -- A manufacturer of brakes for mass-market cars is looking for a new product which excels existing solutions in efficiniency by far. After research in several industrial and sports segments, the company successfully identifies the existance of highly efficient custom-made brakes in the fields of aerospace, professional car racing and train engineering. In close cooperation with train/aerospace engineers and car racing pilots it adopts these initial ideas, modifies them according to the needs of the mass market and the business possibilities of the company and creates an instant economical success.

Lead Users: Example

Space is the ultimate platform for nutritional innovations, in which astronauts are a unique “lead user” for product innovations.

How often do users innovate?

Kinds of innovations user will develop and prototype ?

Starting the lead user project:

• A Lead User project is too demanding for it to run within a company’s functional area alongside routine duties. The creation of a dedicated, interdisciplinary team consisting of people from marketing, sales, R&D and production is required. The team can encompass three to six members where a minimum of 50% of their work time should be available for the project.

• The project team begins with delineation, as accurately as possible, of the search field i.e. a market, product field or service area in which innovative ideas could be found. Goal formulation then follows with the determination of the basic demands required to satisfy the development (desired degree of innovation). Both internal and external influences on the project should be considered at this stage.

Lead Users: Identification of Trends

Identification of trends: Before one can identify lead users in a given product category of interest, one must identify the underlying trends on which these users have a leading position. Methods used could be range from intuitive judgments of experts ('Delphi method') to simple trend extrapolation and more complex econometric models. It seems easier to predict future trends for industrial than consumer goods.

Lead Users: Identification of lead users

Identification of lead users: Based on the detected trends the second step is to identify a sample of lead users. Lead users should be at the leading edge of the trend being studied and should display correlates of high expected benefit from solutions to related needs. The identification of lead users certainly is the most crucial step of this approach. According to the relevant literature lead users can be identified by databank analyses, surveys or personal interviews. In the last years a number of online tools for the support of lead user identification have been developed (e.g. Yenta, IDOL, Xpert-finder) (Springer et al. 2006). While in industrial markets pioneers are often well known, it is much more difficult to find lead users in consumer markets.


Screening Approach: For a large number of product users “screening” for the presence of the previously identified indicators can be carried out for Lead Users. As well as the information freely available about

companies from customer data banks, customer complaints or externally produced reports, telephone interviews can also be used. This approach is practical when the number of customers in the market is oversee able and a complete screening of all users possible.


Networking Approach: This approach involves a small number of customers who are asked if they know of other product users who have new needs or are innovatively active. These kinds of recommendations usually lead very quickly to interesting Lead Users. A significant advantage of this methodology lies in that the team is often exposed to analogous fields in which similar challenges are present as in the search field in question. An example for this is the Lead User project for “medical imaging” for the recognition of small tumors. The search process here didn’t just involve leading radiologists but also experts from the military field as Lead Users. The identification of minute details by the military (e.g. weapons) on satellite images is achieved through pattern-recognition software that is capable of very good results when the resolution is particularly poor. The idea of using a pattern-recognition system for “medical imaging” was completely new as previously the focus had always been on improving resolution.

Lead Users: Development of lead user product concepts

Development of lead user product concepts: The third step is to produce innovation oriented information on lead user needs and use contexts. The outcome of this step is one or more new product or service concepts judged by participants to be responsible to lead user needs. Methods in this step could range from standard market research to active involvement of lead users, e.g. by product development workshops (Kleinschmidt et al. 1996). Springer et al. argue that in the case of industrial goods it is more likely to apply active methods like lead user workshops while as in the case of consumer goods surveys and focus groups are more appropriate.

Lead Users: Market Testing

Market testing: As the need of today’s lead users are not necessarily the same as the needs of future customers, the final step in the lead user method is to test whether concepts found valuable by lead users also will be valued by the more typical users in the target market. Appropriate methods are score-tests, mini-market tests or test market simulations (Springer et al. 2006).

What's beneficial about lead users

Source: Developing New Product Concepts Via the Lead User Method:A Case Study in a "Low Tech" Field", Cornelius Herstatt* and Eric von Hippel** WP#3249-91-BPS February 1991

• Captures the focus areas fast

• Avoids redundancy of innovation and me to products

• Low cost solution

• These are usually perfect fit to their situations

• Usually commercially attractive

• Manufacturers acting on user needs are often imperfect.

How is it different from what we do?

Ethnography tell the present needs / pain point

Lead user tell about the problems and opportunities of future

Source: Eric von Hippiel; Democratizing innovation

Examples of Lead User Innovations:

• SMS

• Google tread view

• Push to Talk in mobile phones

Innovative user

Grass root innovators

Accidental innovators

Other names of lead users:

juggad

Discussion ?

• Lead user method for innovation institutively states that it can be adopted by Companies as a corporate innovation method. How can we adopt the it for consulting projects?

• At what stage in the Contextual Innovation method can this “ lead user concept “ be helpful, and how?

Thank you !

Thank you

Presentation available on slide share (Downloadable)

Article on innovation tracker

Videos available in Bangalore and Pondicherry office (Contact Apala , Sarit, me)

Where has the process been used

Building and Construction Industry: HILTI AG The German company HILTI AG began working with the Lead User methodology as far back as the 1980’s. The first application was carried out in the search field of the fastening of pipes (water, air conditioning, sanitary) and air duct in buildings. The trend analysis, carried out together with planning engineers, resulted in a high demand for a flexible and manageable fastening system that allowed a significant reduction in the time required for assembly. With the aid of the “screening approach”, fourteen Lead Users were chosen from a group of over 150. The selected Lead Users all fulfilled the criteria outlined previously. Due to the available systems not fulfilling their requirements, some of these users had constructed their own products from different manufacturers’ individual components. An innovative concept for a fastening system resulted from the workshop that was afterwards shortly patented. The products developed from this concept formed the basis for a new business area, “technical assembly” and are a firm part of the successful HILTI marketing program.


Medical Products Industry: 3M

Lead User projects begun being used at 3M in the mid-90’s and since then there have been 7 such projects undertaken in different product divisions. One recently completed project in 3M medical division involved the search field of protection against infection during operations. Increasing hygienic demands, a higher resistance against antibiotics and increasing cost pressures were identified as being relevant factors in the search field. With help of the “networking approach”, doctors within the target market, working under extreme conditions (e.g. surgeons in developing countries) were selected. As well as this, users from analogous fields were also involved such as microbiologists or make-up artists. The latter aided in the development of materials that can adhere reliably and comfortably to the human skin. The result of this project was improved protective coverings, a microbial-treated incisions foil and a radical new approach to individual infection control that allows hygienic measures to be tailored to the specific needs of the patient.


IT Industry: Nortel Networks The IT firm Nortel Networks has recently successfully applied the Lead User methodology to their operations. An initial project was begun in the “wireless internet” search field. The project was primarily concerned with GSM-based tracking systems for different applications. The trend analysis carried out showed a strong demand for systems that could be used in mobile applications. Lead Users were sought in fields where the position of objects and the transfer of data played significant roles. In this way, contact was made with so-called “storm chasers” who locate and track tornados. Another group consisted of “animal trackers” who often must determine the position of wild animals from a traveling vehicle. The Lead User workshop produced concrete applications for mobile tracking systems that allow the transfer of multiple forms of data. Included in this, is a concept for the mobile controlling of an “intelligent” house. This system allows, amongst other things, the control of particular appliances in a house as soon as the user leaves the work place (e.g. switching on a heater or pre-heating an oven).

Lead Users