Making the Consumer Part of Your Innovation Team

There are an incredible number of resources that will help you to understand, in great depth, the “who, what, where, when” questions. These questions are critical for your understanding of customers and users, but they cannot exist within a vacuum. To truly begin to understand them, and gather insights that lead to real impact on your business, you need the context behind this data, and to answer the “why” questions. When you engage in conversations with consumers, you’re able to dive deeper into these nuances and uncover larger needs that the ones being stated. A faster horse? Why do they need to travel long distances quickly to begin with?

Many forego asking the “why” altogether because they perceive it as too difficult, or “impossible to scale.” Perhaps that was true when the only option was to fly across the world to be stuck behind mirrored glass for hours on end, but the most innovative organizations conduct research at scale online. This gives access to the answers in a matter of days rather than weeks, without ever hopping on a plane.

Many brands have begun weaving customers into their innovation practices by launching team or enterprise-wide initiatives that facilitate building empathy and understanding for the consumer. By enabling everyone across their team to engage in conversations with their target audiences on a regular and ongoing basis, teams are able to develop strategy that is not only innovative, but customer-centric.

To learn more about how to start involving customers into your innovation cycle, read our guide, “Build What People Will Buy.”