Tools for User-Driven Innovation at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories

Users are important actors in innovation projects: The market success of new products and services depends highly on addressing the right customer requirements without overloading them with too many new features and technologies (Lettl and Gemünden 2005; Mason and Harris 2005). Going beyond traditional market research and integrating customers intensively into the innovation process is an important measure of market-oriented innovation management (Ernst 2002; Iansiti and Clark 1994). Deutsche Telekom Laboratories reduces market uncertainties in new product and service projects by applying the concept of user-driven innovation. User-driven innovation is based on innovative customer research tools specifically tailored to four innovation phases: exploration (e.g., day-in-the-life visits), ideation (e.g., lead-user workshops), selection/execution (e.g., user clinics), and commercialization (e.g., field tests). Deutsche Telekom Laboratories applies a variety of these “intelligent”, user-driven innovation tools in order to guarantee a phase-specific, integrated customer orientation. This section gives a methodological overview and examples based on the case study of interactive mobile TV (IMTV).