Innovation Heroes

Understanding Customers as a Valuable Innovation Resource

This book provides the knowledge necessary for succeeding in a world where companies increasingly work side-by-side with customers to create new products and services. It is a pivotal navigation tool that helps cruise the ocean of customer integration methods and explains how the methods work, when to choose which, and how to seize advantages while avoiding pitfalls.

This title is an essential read for research and development managers, marketing professionals, and other practitioners who are involved in new product development to apply customer integration methods effectively and efficiently to drive new product development success. While the application of methods is no guarantee of success, knowledge of the correct selection and appropriate application increases the probability of new product and service development success. Rich in theoretical frameworks, research findings, and practical information about customer integration methods, Innovation Heroes will help the reader appreciate the value of customers as an innovation resource and ways to profit from them.

Contents:

• Customers at the Center Stage
• Direct Approaches to Open the Solution Space: Users as Creativity Machines
• Indirect Approaches to Open the Solution Space: Methods to Identify Latent Needs
• Approaches to Close the Solution Space: Customers as Evaluators
• Integrated Approaches to Open and Close the Solution Space: Multiple Customer Interaction
• Development of Organizational Customer Integration Capabilities and Implementation of Customer Integration in NPD and NSD

Readership: R&D, marketing, and innovation practitioners who want to improve their knowledge of customer integration in new product and service development as well as graduate and undergraduate students with a degree in innovation management, engineering management, design, or marketing.
Key Features:

• These videos provide insights in some theoretical concepts or practical examples covered in the book
• The book provides web links for diving further into the one or the other topic discussed in the book