How can explorations be organized to ensure that they lead to high-value, profitable innovations such as the nail-holder, but without requiring costly learning processes? The sort of innovations which we think we could have invented ourselves. The first type of innovation field concerns this type of project. It aims to find a new value without having to make heavy investments in ‘science’ or conquer new technologies. There are many examples which fit into this category, such as customized mobile phone casings and ‘plip’ remote control car door locking systems. Projects of this sort can involve high technology, but only if its development can be planned – without surprises – or if it has already been developed. Such innovations rely heavily on user involvement, but user involvement is not a recipe in itself: it can be a solution, but it can also be a trap. In this chapter, we show how to deal with this type of apparently low-tech, high-user-value innovation.
Examples of creations of new product lineages in large firms
To illustrate the issues at stake in the context of different industries, we begin by examining the case of Telia, a Swedish telephone operator, which at the end of the 1990s was confronted with the problem of designing mobile telephone services for third generation (3G) technology. The technical norms for 3G were already well established at that time, but designers were wondering how to create value for customers.
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