Presentation in the NETworked 2010 seminar on 11.10.2010, Oslo, Norway

1. Involving users in innovation
NETworked 2010
Pirjo Näkki
pirjo.nakki@vtt.fi
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

2. 201/30/15
Outline
 User involvement in social media
 Co-innovation in Owela (Open Web Lab)
 User motivations
 Facilitation of the process
 Case: Monimos.fi
 Co-creation with multicultural users
 Experiences of private and public sector innovation

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Why user/customer/consumer/citizen involvement?
 Participatory design: Everyone has a right to be
involved in the decisions affecting their life [1]
 Co-creation: Customers add value to the product,
when they are involved from the early phases of
the innovation process [2]
 User innovation: Users are a significant source of innovation
especially at the site of using the product or service [3]
 Community innovation: Innovation starts outside companies in
distributed and networked user communities [4]

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Opportunities in social media
 Reaching more users and customers
 Easily, quickly and cost-efficiently
 Participation regardless of time and place
 Enough space for everyone’s voice
 Users as innovators and design partners that are
continuously connected with the developers
 Voting mechanisms support decision-making
 Open and transparent design process
 More people can contribute with their knowledge
and skills

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Social media as a space for open innovation
 Crowdsourcing
 Outsourcing part of the design work
to the crowd on the web
 Mostly short time contribution
 Idea competitions
 Design challenges: ”micro-tasks”
 Feedback channel
 Online design spaces
 Participatory / collaborative design
 User/stakeholder participation during the whole process
 Transparent and community driven approach (e.g. open source)

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UserVoice.com:
Share, vote and comment feedback and ideas!

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ReDesignMe.com:
Suggest a better design!

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MockingBird.com:
Design the user interface!

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Owela (Open Web Lab)
 Online space for open innovation and co-design
 Public idea forum
 Design projects (public or restricted)
 Social media tools are easy for users
 Blog-like idea posting, commenting, rating,
voting
 Images, videos, slideshows
 User profiles with background information
 Activity points based on participation
http://owela.vtt.fi

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User involvement in all phases of innovation process
 Consumer studies as a basis for innovation
 Online focus group discussion, diaries, chat sessions, surveys
 Open ideation based on selected themes
 Comments, rating, new ideas, selection by voting
 Concept evaluation
 Comments on (visual) scenario, mock-up or prototype
 Prototype testing and feedback (online or real world)
 Chat sessions, bug reports, discussion with developers
 Co-design
 (Long-term) user-driven innovation project, where users are
seen as design partners
Consumer
study
Open
ideation
Concept
evaluation
Test
feedback
Co-design

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User motivations to participate in innovation
 “The possibility to participate”: opportunity to express own
opinions and influence, be part of decision-making
 People: Networking, activity of others
 Topic: Personal interest, learning, curiosity, fun
 Result: change in society, better products for oneself
 Tools: channel to express own creativity
 Feedback: comments of others, reminders
 Others: monetary rewards, CV entry, invitation

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Facilitation needs attention
 Structure and schedule of the process:
Goals and tasks must be clear for users
 Defining tasks: Simple tasks are easier to
contribute than ”real” design issues
 Continuous updating: The design space should
not die. Reminders are needed.
 Text-based communication: Ideas must be clearly presented,
comments may be misunderstood
 Moderation: Should negative comments be moderated?
Web tools
User-driven
process
Innovative
people
Heikot
signaalit
Ongelmat
Ideat
Owela-projekti
0. Aloituspäätös
Tavoitteet, aikataulu
1. Ideointi
Skenaarioiden
kehittäminen
2. Arviointi
Skenaarioiden
kommentointi
3. LivingLab
Prototyyppien
testaus
IdeaTube
Kokemukset

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Case Monimos
 Social media service for immigrants (and associations) to enhance
civic participation and collaboration with locals and public sector
 Shared case study of two research projects
 Somus: Social media for citizens and public sector
collaboration (VTT, Aalto University, University of Tampere)
 EPACE: Exchanging good practices for the promotion of an
active citizenship in the EU (Ministry of Justice)
 in collaboration with the network of multicultural
associations in Helsinki capital area (Moniheli)

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Monimos design process
 Goal:
 Transparent, open and democratic design process
 Community-driven: users choose, what they need, and
participate in the whole design process as design partners
 Challenges:
 How to involve an unknown user group in the design process?
 How to make users involved in the design process over a long
period of time?
 How to make participation possible for everyone, who is
interested in it?

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15
Solution: Workshops + Online tools
Needs, problems,
ideas
Workshops
Service concept
Owela discussion,
Moniheli workshop
Service pilot
Online test,
further development
2009 2010
Design and
development
w/ Monimos team
Workshops + Owela
Public
service
Continuous
development

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Using online tools in workshops
Distance participation via Skype, Etherpad and Bambuser

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Open co-design in Owela
Discussion, feature suggestions, voting,
layout, service name, testing
http://owela.vtt.fi/immigrantmedia

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Result: www.monimos.fi
 Meeting place for internationally
minded people in Finland
 Immigrants as active participants
instead of
objects of discussion
 Associations as driving forces
for networking, real world events
and taking action
18

19. 1901/30/15
Public
Everyone
Democracy
Everyone/No one
Discussion: all
voices are heard
User involvement in public vs. private sector 1/2
Private
Innovative users
Strategy, money
Product manager
Decision-making
Who takes part?
Driving force?
Ownership
Way of acting?

20. 2001/30/15
Public
Restriction
Slow, hierarchies
Lack of courage
Civic participation,
change, reputation
User involvement in public vs. private sector 2/2
Private
Goal
Fast and agile
Lack of time
Better products,
rewards
Money?
Processes?
Challenges?
User motivation?

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How social media affects user involvement?

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Thank you!
Pirjo Näkki
Research scientist
VTT Media Technologies
pirjo.nakki@vtt.fi
+358 20 722 5897
http://linkedin.com/in/pirjonakki
Twitter: priio
http://owela.vtt.fi/ , owela@vtt.fi

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References
[1] Schuler, D. and Namioka, A. (1993): Participatory design: Principles and practices.
Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey.
[2] Piller, F. and Ihl C. (2009): Open Innovation with Customers – Foundations,
Competences and International Trends. Aachen: RWTH ZLW-IMA 2009.
Prahalad, C. K. and Ramaswamy V. (2004): The Future of Competition: Co-
Creating Unique Value with Customers, Harvard Business School Press.
[3] von Hippel, E. (1986): ‘Lead users: a source of novel product concepts’,
Management Science, vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 791–805.
von Hippel, E. (2001): ‘Perspective: User toolkits for innovation’, Journal of Product
Innovation Management, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 247-257.
von Hippel, E. (2005): Democratizing Innovation. The MIT Press.
[4] Botero, A., Vihavainen, S., and Karku, K. (2009): ‘From closed to open to what? An
exploration on community innovation principles’, in Proceedings of the 13th
International MindTrek Conference: Everyday Life in the Ubiquitous Era, Tampere,
Finland, ACM Press, pp. 198- 202.