On the other hand, for a lot of reasons enterprise software vendors interact primarily with their most demanding and sophisticated customers/users (very much the “lead users”) and work very closely with them - usually at their location for extended periods of time learning about their needs and ideas. This can lead to some very important benefits - especially the “filling-out” of the product with all the capabilities it needs to support the full needs of the customer.

However, I am also convinced that this process is difficult to manage, not only because these big customers can come to exert enormous power over the design trajectory (and can “bully” the vendor into making the product in the customer’s image), but also because this can have the effect of narrowing the product’s market appeal to the segment that looks exactly like them. The company may actually end up with a very innovative and sophisticated solution, but it won’t matter much if there are only 10 customers that can appreciate it. What is needed is a method for determining which “lead users” and which ideas are truly representative of broader future market trends. This has been notoriously difficult for many companies in the world of business software. This is one reason why your point about communicating with users outside of your customer base may be so useful for identifying key dimensions of innovation. Thanks again for your comments!

I found this posting to be very interesting. My quick thoughts (I might be back for more):

von Hippel recognized the trap of being too customer-oriented a decade before Christensen.

Lead user research was a methodology designed to (1) identify the most demanding users and (2) use tools to uncover tacit/sticky information that users can’t easily communicate. For radical innovation, lead users sometimes had to be users totally outside your customer base.

If you work to recognize the most demanding users, and use tools to uncover sticky or tacit information you will definitely be both more inventive and innovative. If instead you focus on your average customer and communicate through surveys, casual conversation, or focus groups you are toast.