How to Apply Social Technologies to Product Innovation

April 8, 2023 www.tcgen.com 1

How Social Technologies Are Applied to the Product Creation Process

Jeanne Bradford@jeannebradford

TCGen, IncMenlo Park, CA

May 2011

Social Product Innovation


Discussion Framework

• Social Product Innovation – So what?– Benchmark Study Background– Apply social technology through all phases of the PDP

• The Landscape• Organizing Principles• Case Studies: 5 Best Practices

– Customer Driven Strategy– Time Bounded Innovation– Beyond Crowdsourcing = “Expert Sourcing” drives better results– Customer as Designer: Accelerating TTM & Reducing Cost– 3rd Party Solutions & Dedicated Resources = Rapid Social Implementation

• Challenges


TCGen: Innovating New Products Faster

• Experienced-based consultancy, based in Menlo Park, CA– Practice Areas: Product creation best practices, product definition, predictive

metrics, change management – 25+ years industry experience for each principal– Combine experience with contemporary best practices to create lasting

change– Flexible, adaptable approach that respects the client’s corporate culture

• Client List (partial)AOL • Abbott • Agilent • Apple • Avaya • Baxter • Becton Dickinson • Bio-Rad • Bose • Cisco• Compaq • Corning • DataCard • Hewlett-Packard • Honeywell • IBM • Keithley • Kodak • Livescribe • Lucent • Medrad • Medtronic • Mentor Graphics • NetApp • Pacific Pulmonary Services • Phoenix Technologies • Portal Software • SGI • Stanley • Teachscape • Tektronix • Texas Instruments • United Parcel Service • Western Digital • Westinghouse • Xerox • 3M

Benchmark Study Background

• The increasing trend of unusual uses for Social Networking platforms and the complexity and challenge of product development triggered our interest in this timely topic.– We thought there must be innovative ways social networking platforms are used in

product development.– Who is leading the charge and what have they learned?

• Joined by Santa Clara University Professors who shared our interest and passion, we performed this multi-client benchmark study, and simultaneously launched research on this emerging topic.

– Formulated hypotheses for our study– Created an interview guide & identified target companies– Conducted face-to-face or telephone interviews ranging from 1-4 hours each with 2-3

researchers and company experts– Summarized our interviews and identified 10 best practices.

• We supplemented benchmarking with best practices from the literature review• Initial study was completed in December 2010, and is continuing to be expanded.


Babson/Mzinga Social Media Usage Report

• We found relatively few examples of using Social Technologies/Social Media in our research. It is an emerging practice and although we found companies who had tried it, very few actually had successes.

• As can be seen in the Babson/Mzinga study below, there is very little use of Social Technologies in Product Development as of 2010, but we know the investment is increasing.


http://www.slideshare.net/PingElizabeth/survey-social-software-in-business

14% investing90% expected

Social Media Soup

Social Media Concepts: The Basics

• Social Networks: Platforms to engage and interact with clients, customers (users), market, and competitors.

• User Communities: • Users of a good or service with a common interest.• Purpose driven to provide focus, engagement• Allows multi-directional communication flow – “cross talk”

• Innovation (our context): A new concept with significant business relevance

• Social Media Technology: Internet-based tools and applications that facilitate the creation and exchange of user generated content.

• Social Innovation: Innovation leveraging Social Media Technology

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“70% of consumers want to interact via social media, and only 30% of companies are ready for it.” ~ The Yankee Group

Product Development Lifecycle

Concept Design Development Validation Launch

IBM Innovation Jams

Cisco iPrize Netflix Contest

Social as a Feature (RSS)

Innocentive

Quirky

3rd Party Platforms: eg Spigit, BrightIdea, Communispace

Social technologies throughout the all phases of the product development cycle

Customer as Designer

Customer as Product Strategist

Social Beta testing

Feature rating/ranking

April 8, 2023

An increasing number of companies – both B2B & B2C - are embracing the social web to drive product innovation

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Social Product Innovation Landscape

We’ve studied over 30 companies and their product innovation methodologies – and from them identified best practices you can begin implementing today.

April 8, 2023

Product Innovation Organizing Principles

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Communities

Closed

Open

Focus SolutionProblem

“Cross Talk” is the driving forceNot one way to organize, but successful communities are well defined

Experts


Five Case Studies: • Customer Driven Strategy• Time Bounded Innovation• Beyond Crowdsourcing = “Expert Sourcing” drives better results• Customer as Designer: Accelerating TTM & Reducing Cost• 3rd Party Solutions & Dedicated Resources = Rapid Social

Implementation

Social Product Innovation Best Practices

Benchmark Study @ www.tcgen.com/knowledge

Best PracticeCustomer Driven Strategy & Tactics

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• The ‘Brainstorm’ site has ranked development priorities (Top 10), with the list published at the annual user conference.

• Feedback and acknowledgement is given to those who have submitted suggestions that were adopted.

• This closed community creates a forum for peer review & discussion of ideas which influences corporate strategy.

• Not only can participants indicate how strongly they support a priority, but they can indicate that a priority should not be on the list.

Practice: Community driven corporate product strategy – with 80% of the priorities aligned with external input

• Besides the strategic example above, users can interact within the customer portal to contribute cutting edge designs at a more tactical level.

• For example, special purpose forums allow interaction around a feature being considered by a newly formed team, and many teams have this ability at their disposal.

• Users have also contributed in design contests to submit best examples of designs that highlight the use of the software.

Goal: Allow users to influence development direction at many levels – strategic and tactical

• The company emphasizes a “closed loop” communication, reinforcing that the customers’ voice was heard.

• This closed loop approach is used in other areas of social innovation.

Results: Up to 80% of user driven priorities are implemented

Allowing customers to set development direction, priorities, and feature definitions via electronic means demonstrates how voice of the customer can be obtained at many levels efficiently

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• The live Jam duration is typically one week but can be as short as 72 hours.• Real time data analysis tools scan forum comments to identify hot topics and emerging themes.• Lack of anonymity ensures that feedback remains constructive, even if critical.

Practice: The IBM Jam accelerates innovation & consensus by combining an optimized process for innovation with technology to help with communication, filtering, and idea enhancement

• Transcend culture, generation, language, and geographic challenges to harness collective brainpower for a given problem or challenge.

• Use online, virtual collaboration to drive increased real world collaboration across the enterprise.

Goal: Increase the front end of the innovation process by reaching out to relevant community voices - and do it quickly

• Within seventy two hours hundreds of ideas can be generated.• Technology provided the ability to draw upon experts repeatedly because the responses are

traceable.• The Jam process yielded prioritized and manageable solutions with a direct line of sight from idea to

execution.

Result: Quickly harnessed innovation on new problems with large, distributed organizations

Best Practice IBM Jams – Time Bounded Innovation Community

Social Media isn’t limited to ongoing communities. Well defined sessions & qualified participants can be leveraged effectively as a time bounded, high impact initiative.

ProjectInitiation Live Event

Jam preparation: marketing, training/recruitment, site preparation

Post-Jam Analysis and Implementation

ActionReport

For more information see: https://www.collaborationjam.com/

https://www.collaborationjam.com/

Best PracticeCustomer as Designer: Using Customer’s Photographs

• This company used a closed community composed of the target market where they shared photographs and provided input on their biggest challenges with using the product.

• The product team included these photographs as part of the design process to help with idea creation and product definition. Specifically, this rich input depicts various cosmetics carried by moms, and the size and space where those items need to fit, and other items (non-cosmetic) that might be also be included in the product.

• Photographic input is much richer than a survey, and is much more accurate because it does not rely on memory.

• By sharing the photographs the moms can share experiences and provide a more meaningful context for probing and further exploration.

Practice: In designing a new cosmetic line, the company asked their target market (busy moms) to photograph and share their empty purses to help design the ideal “mobile” cosmetic solution.

• This organization had a desire to increase revenue from new products.• This technique was also able to reduce the cost of product definition since customer visitation was done

via the internet, not in person.

Goal: Increase number of products simultaneously delivered and significantly accelerate time-to-market

• Inclusion of the photographs from the focused target market enhanced contextual product definition and allowed the company to realize that many cosmetic product could be included in one package.

• The process ‘virtualizes’ customer visitation, a best practice for product definition.

Results: Set new standard for production delivery - 12 new products in six months


Capturing specific environments of use allows your customers to make the highest value contributions

Best PracticeRapid Idea Generation & Dedicated Team


• BrightIdea allowed this study participant to quickly construct campaigns and helped them to gather ideas from employees.

• The platform also has mechanisms of voting and collaboration, so participants can put concepts out there and employees can contribute to them, and then re-vote on the enhanced ideas.

Practice: Use out-of-box platforms to quickly harness innovation on new problems within large, distributed organizations.

• This team is a central group that helps put tools in place, create templates, and guide the teams.• An implementation strategy that allows the flexibility to customize the platform and to share data across

business units was instrumental to the success of this organization.

Goal: There is an urgent need for larger companies to innovate, but their size often makes it more difficult. This study participant formed a small group to serve as an innovation management team. They work with all the various software and solutions business units on their specific innovation plans and objectives.

• Campaigns ramped up and were running in less than a week, and typical campaigns take 5-6 weeks to organize.

• In one case, a campaign generated 200-400 ideas in 2 weeks.• Response tracking within the platform gave teams the ability to draw upon experts repeatedly.• These platforms are easy to extend and reuse – did not require the central team to acquire detailed

technical expertise.• Features of the software includes aspects of filtering, voting, prioritization and idea management.• This platform is being used by divisions with upwards of several thousand people.

Results: The team, formed to drive innovation, was widely tapped to help many of the operating businesses achieve their innovation goals.

Typically innovation programs require a long time to get up and running even if leveraged by technology – but there are rapid deployment solutions available.


Best PracticeOptimizing the Crowd: Beyond Crowdsourcing

• The best communities do not allow anonymous participation. Community members are qualified and invited to join based on a their ability to provide valuable contributions

• Tools like BrightIdea’s Switchboard allow communities to identify subject matter experts –– both internal and external to the company. The simplicity of the tool (email based) drives faster decision making by providing a quick view of the idea and a key set of questions to answer.

• The more you use the tool, the more valuable it becomes to the community. By tapping previously recognized experts, you can generate credible ideas faster.

Practice: The best ideas come from the best people. Quality trumps quantity. The best systems start with qualified participants and then track the participation and quality of ideas.

• Develop the competency to screen participants for true idea generators. • Identify subject matter experts to drive decision making, and establish a talent pool to tap subsequent innovation

sessions (or to build on the current session) in an efficient and rapid manner.

Goal: Maximize the quality of data generated by a community to drive decision making & execution

• OESA Jam: Original Equipment Supplier Association and Auto Industry Thought Leaders redefine Supplier OEM Relationships

• First ever industry-wide Jam was driven by the economic pressures that required better collaboration in the supply chain. This 77 hour event created 5 change concepts that reshaped how the industry approached collaboration, focused on innovation, and improved the value proposition for both suppliers & OEMs

• 2010 Global Security Jam: Re-thinking Modern Global Security• European Union sponsored Jam included 4,000 thought leaders from 20 international agencies. This 5-day

brainstorming session resulted in 10 recommendations that were both innovative and pragmatic

Results: Qualified participants yield a much higher quality of data. Additionally, with the use of subject matter experts, learning curves for subsequent campaigns are shortened. Below are two examples from IBM.

There is only wisdom of the crowd if there is a focus area and the participants are qualified to contribute in this focus area


Challenges & Emerging Best Practices

• Lack of Community purpose and vibrancy is a common reason for failure– Crowd sourcing vs. expert sourcing

• Changes in the balance of power and decision making in companies• Managing the quantity & quality of data from the communities• Intellectual property practices are being testing when innovation occurs

outside the corporate walls• New learning and skill development will be required – especially with the

older workforce.

April 8, 2023

Questions?

Jeanne Bradford@jeannebradford

[email protected]

TCGen, IncMenlo Park, CAwww.tcgen.com

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mailto:[email protected]

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