Toolkit for User Innovation

Toolkits are intended for use by ...

• users

• producers

Toolkits are created by... users or producers

• users

• producers

In general, toolkits are more useful for

• commodity products

• non-commodity products

The goal of a toolkits is to ...

• enable specialist users to design high-quality custom products for non-specialist users

• enable specialist users to design high-quality custom products to exactly meet their own needs

• enable non-specialist users to design customized products to exactly meet their own needs

• enable non-specialist users to design lower-quality but more customer products for themselves

How do toolkits extract sticky information from users?

• surveys seamlessly embedded into a given toolkit

• expert-led interviews of users who represent specific segments within the user population

• user-driven customization

Because of sticky information, a toolkit

• partitions a given product development task into subproblems each drawing on only one locus of sticky information

• avoids partitioning altogether because of the high degree of difficulty of extracting sticky information and the high degree of heterogeneity of user needs

Toolkits...

• make the innovation process cheaper and quicker for users, but result in less reliable end product

• make the innovation process cheaper and quicker for users, while allowing for a higher degree of customization

• make the innovation process more expensive and time-consuming because of the greater effort and time needed on the part of the producer for fine-grained customization

• make the innovation process more expensive, but faster, while also resulting in end products of the highest quality

Toolkits are intended to involve...

• just lead users, because they possess the most important sticky information

• all interested users

What kind of innovation tasks do producers outsource to users as part of innovation toolkits

• need-related

• solution-related

• both

• neither

How do innovation toolkits differ from the lead user search processes?

• fundamentally, there is no difference, because toolkits are just another method for identifying lead users

• lead user search processes do not involve regular users, while innovation toolkits are intended for all users

• lead user search processes do not change the conditions affecting user innovations at the time a new product or service is being developed