NOTE ON LEAD USER

RESEARCH
Presented by :-
Group 6
 Who are Lead Users?

 Lead users are those who lead with respect to cutting

edge of important markets and technical trends.
 Characteristics of Lead Users

They face needs for products and services that do not exist in the market

They develop new products/services themselves.

They purchase the products/services even before the early adopters.

Three types of Lead Users

Lead users in target applications

Lead users in analogous markets

Lead users involved with more important attributes of

problems faced by users in the target market
Benefits of Lead Users

Access to richer and more

●

reliable information

Development of better
●

products and service concepts

Acceleration of the product and

●

service development process.

 Challenges
 Difficulty in predicting pathway from start to
finish.
 The high level of commitment needed in terms
of quality an quantity of human resources.
 Difficulties in accessing given individual’s
participation in a team based effort.
 Lead User Research Process
 Stage 1: Project Planning

Indentify
types of
Team
markets Takes
seeks to Develop Refine the
and new approxima
define master project
products tely 4-6
level of plan focus.
of interests weeks.
innovation
it seeks to
target.
 Stage 2: Trends/Needs Identification

Goal is to select a specific need related

trend to focus upon for the remainder
of the study

Members browse through reading

material selected by the team during
Stage 1

Interview lead users as well as

lead use and local experts.

Interpret and analyze data and

select specific needs to focus on.

The process takes

approximately 5-6 weeks
 Stage 3: Preliminary Concept Generation
 Stage 4: Final Concept Generation

Lead user workshop of two to three days is organized

Improve and add to the preliminary concepts with lead

users and experts

Finalize the concepts

The process takes approximately 5-6 weeks

 Testing the Concepts
 Evaluate project outcomes.
 Plan next commercialization steps.