Lead User in Open Organizations - How a Refined Lead User Concept can help to Integrate Workshop Results

Having tried to apply the classical Lead User methodology to various cases, companies have called for changes. In the case of a large automotive supplier in Germany the management wanted to fill the innovation funnel with... [ view full abstract ]

Having tried to apply the classical Lead User methodology to various cases, companies have called for changes. In the case of a large automotive supplier in Germany the management wanted to fill the innovation funnel with ideas created in a Lead User workshop. First discussions showed very soon that the general framework of the company does not allow for a classical Lead User workshop. The general framework of the department ‘pre-development Human Machine Interface’ in the company was analyzed and the classical Lead User methodology was adapted. The new concept was shorter, as we reduced the time to one day only, and additional participants, like start-up companies as well as the technical-solution-know-how of the company itself were integrated. After the workshop the results were analyzed and the reliability of the new workshop concept was evaluated and compared to the outcome of other Open Innovation methods. The general framework of that particular automotive supplier is very similar to many others in that industry, so the new workshop concept might be a solution to many other companies.