Innovation by living in the future

Many organizations or entrepreneurs are always on a search for "the next big thing". The next idea, that brings you millions of customers and even more dollars. We had the same issue. What we did? We sat together and did a lot of brainstormings about the biggest customer needs and possibilities to solve them. Proud and euphoric about our ideas we started to do some competitors analysis - and figured out that our "great invention" already exists.

I guess, that every one of us already made the experience, that one had a brilliant idea - and then it turned out, that someone else had the same idea already before. The problem is, besides you and me, there is also a bunch of other pretty smart guys, who also have some nice ideas. Innovator's major problem becomes more and more to find problems, not solutions. Whenever there is an opportunity, there is someone ready to exploit it, as it seems.

So where can we find the opportunities to get in the game of inventions and innovations? It makes neither sense to look for it in the past nor in present. So find your opportunities in the future.

The way to do so, is by interviewing "Lead Users". Lead Users are people, who have significant knowledge of upcoming trends and developments in a specific field. It's not about forecasting. It's about living in the future. Lead User have the knowledge of customer needs, because  they have them.
Take the emerging market of augmented reality games: We know that there is a lot of buzz around this topic. But the whole thing is just starting. What's needed are persons who know what's happening in the field, even if there isn't a real "field" yet. Such persons could be experts for mobile phone games (since augmented reality games are merely played on these devices), a beta tester of "ingress" (a huge upcoming augmented reality game) or even a sociologist (who can describe how people move within a given area). The point is that: We know the topic that we want to work on and these lead users know what is going to happen in this area.

Lead the User by Using the Leader

Sounds nice, so far. But how do we use the expert's knowledge efficiently? The lead user research process takes 4 phases:

In phase 1 you decide what area you are interested in (sports, medicine, games, etc. - especially when you are an entrepreneur, take one you are REALLY interested in - you'll need the enthusiasm ;) ). Decide, what's your business goal and who your team members will be. Take care, that there is at least one person with the required technical knowledge (e.g. a software engineer, when you plan to make an online service) and one person with marketing skills - you can make inventions through technical expertise; but it takes customers to make it an innovation. When you have that team, do some literature research about upcoming trends  and define lead users (authors of scientific articels, popular blog poster, experts within the particular market).

In phase 2 you are going to fetch some of the identified lead users and ask them for their great wisdom (wise people are always willed to help other people with their overwhemling wisdom - so just contact them pere mail or phone ). Ask them two different types of questions: "What do you know?" and "Who do you know?". The first kind of  questions is to identify the emerging customer needs and problems (concentrate only on needs and problems in this phase - it's harder to find a problem than a solution!). The second kind of question is to build up a network of lead users, who can give you additional information.

In phase 3 you put your collected data together. Every team member gets an overview of the research and develops prototypes (or sketches) about possible solutions. Discuss the ideas in team meetings and get a priliminary concept of the solution.

In phase 4 finally you get back together with the lead users and create a feasible proposal. Ideally you invite them to a workshop together with the team. Tell them your insights and your thoughts about potential solutions. And make then a written proposal for your great innovation -  and take care that all your business goals are met!

Lead user innovation is a fabolous way to get new products or services - all it requires, is curiosity and importunancy - don't be afraid of big names and big ideas. Those guys started just like you.