Crowdsourcing innovation:the role of UX

Johanna Kollmann - @johannakoll

All opinions expressed in this presentation are my own and do not necessarily represent the official view of Vodafone.

Crowdsourcing

Innovation

…realising that you can't have enough good ideas on your own…getting excited together

…a process that involves having lots of ideas …inventions that have an impact

Photo: Silke Gerstenkorn / http://www.flickr.com/people/silkegb/

Eric von Hippel Professor of Technological InnovationMIT Sloan School of Management

“Democratizing Innovation” (2005)

Photo: Jean-Baptiste Labrunehttp://www.flickr.com/people/jeanbaptisteparis/

Lead users…at the leading edge of an important market trend, experiencing needs that will later be experienced by many users in that market.

…anticipate relatively high benefits from obtaining a solution to their needs, and so may innovate

Photo: horrgakx http://www.flickr.com/people/horrgakx/

Photo: Rona Proudfoot http://www.flickr.com/people/ronnie44052/

"Product developers need two types of information in order to succeed at their work: need and context-of-use information (generated by users) and generic solution information (often initially generated by manufacturers specializing in a particular type of solution). Bringing these two types of information together is not easy.” – Eric von Hippel

Need and solution information

…collaboration between Vodafone, China Mobile Limited, Softbank and Verizon Wireless

…a platform to develop mobile services

…aims for applications to run seamlessly on different phones and operating systems across different mobile operators

Joint Innovation Lab

JIL Website (Beta)

Redesign: UX design guidelines

UX as enabler and educator …how to get started building widgets

…advocating a user-centred design approach

…UX design guidelines, resources

Joint Innovation Lab

UX as facilitator of and participant in technological innovation

…improving online community and collaboration platform

…showcase apps

…usability of APIs, framework, tools

Joint Innovation Lab

“Users’ ability to innovate is improving radically and rapidly as a result of the steadily improving quality of computer software and hardware, improved access to easy-to-use tools and components for innovation, and access to a steadily richer innovation commons." – Eric von Hippel

Improving solution information

Photo: Jack Wolf http://www.flickr.com/people/wolfraven/

Photo: Isolino Ferreira http://www.flickr.com/people/isolino/

But what about needs informationwhen developer lead users are not designing for themselves?

…UX-driven project about sustainability, focus on mobile technology

…goal: develop concepts for tools and services that can help individuals and communities understand their impact on the environment, and to take action to lessen that impact

…co-design: collaborating with lead users, aka progressives, to work on ideas with potential

Co-design workshops

Online community

24-hour hackathon

UX as facilitator of idea generation and collaboration

…bringing needs and solution information together

…collaborated with lead users in the field of sustainability, the niche experts, and connected their ideas with developer lead user projects

…project facilitated a collaboration between the providers of data and APIs

Collaborating to create is hard

Photos: Dana & Ron http://www.flickr.com/people/danaron/

Photo: Kevin McDonagh http://www.flickr.com/people/appletv/

charityhack.org

…the formats of open innovation are changing

Designer as participants…

Meaningful ideas as the goal…

Photo: jd508 http://www.flickr.com/people/jd508/

So…conclusion time

“The direction in which an artifact (a product, for example) evolves depends very much on the meanings that different “groups with a problem” construct for it.”

Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) model of technological evolution (Pinch and Bijker 1987)

“Technology isn't moving that fast. What's fast is how we adopt and adapt it.”

Nicky Smith, @nickycast

Crowdsourcing

…bring ideas from different (lead user) communities together

…crowdsource the effort to turn ideas into inventions

…designing for participation, openness and collaboration

…facilitation is a key UX skill

Innovation

…UX and design play a key role, as they make inventions meaningful and useful

…UX and design play a key role in the small steps of innovation: improving current experiences, spotting how lead users adapt products

…UX should play a bigger role in technological innovation

Human behaviour drives both the invention and adaptation of technology.

Photo: technosurf http://www.flickr.com/people/technosurf1/

It’s not walking on water. But pretty close.

Thank you. Questions?

Books: Eric von Hippel: ‘Democratizing Innovation’Scott Berkun: ‘The myths of innovation’Jeff Howe: ‘Crowdsourcing’Charles Leadbeater: ‘We-Think’

Vodafone: Martina Joisten (JIL)Franco Papeschi, Tory Dunn (ecomo 09)

Thanks: Betavine and the ecomo 09 hackers, Paypal and the Charityhack crew, and the large number of clever people who blogged, presented, talked, questioned, shared