Co-creation with lead users: multiple case study in the information technology segment
Co-creation. Open innovation. The process of product development. Lead User.
The integration of consumers (IC) in the product development process is one of the practices that companies have sought in order to achieve innovation. However, work on this aspect show that it is necessary to find the appropriate user, thus making this identification of the most delicate stages of the partnership company / client. The wrong choice can result in failure of the co-creative project. Therefore, the leading user Theory - which underlies this work - points this user in particular as ideal for co-creation. To them, two main features are closely linked-: face new market needs, ahead of his time, which will become common trends for customers in the near future; they strongly benefit from the innovations which provide solutions, making it a motivation to work in product development companies. Therefore, the objective of this research is to propose a procedure for the identification of the leading users. For this, the method used was the multiple case studies with companies in the sector of Information Technology (IT), with the conduct conducting semi-structured interviews with the directors, sales agents and their users leaders. The results show that companies have developed their own criteria for selecting users; These criteria, after analysis, have been refined and formed the basis for purpose of this study. Finally, the procedure has in its pillars questions-criteria covering issues such as product and its process, relationship, aroused feelings and personal characteristics.