What are the best ways to collaborate with customers in digital innovation?

Forget the fancy tools and methods for a moment. 'Customer-centric' remains a buzzword unless you: 1. Stop thinking about your products & services when talking to your customers. Sounds simple, but it's the most important and often overlooked step toward becoming 'customer-centric'. You want their unfiltered needs, wants and concerns. Leave your sales figures worries at the office! 2. Remember, customers usually don't know what they want. Don't dwell on this. It's the innovation manager's job to figure this out later. 3. Back at the office, connect the dots: customer needs (desirability), business needs (viability) and your digital capabilities (feasibility). Now, that's digital innovation!

Process and tools are essential for structuring and synthesizing the wealth of insights a team will get from a customer interaction. More important is the team’s ability to connect to the users’ hearts and minds, listen with an open paradigm that goes beyond the product or value proposition in focus. In person Interviews are the single most valuable venue to understand, design, test and build digital solutions that fit and scale.

The concept of customer-centricity is of paramount importance in the business landscape, with its profound impact on business performance evident in both turbulent and stable periods. This influence cannot be overstated. A customer-centric approach positively affects business performance by bolstering customer satisfaction, increasing customer retention, boosting revenue, and enhancing competitive advantage, all while mitigating costs and providing invaluable market insights. It is a strategy that can significantly contribute to long-term success and sustainability within the business landscape.

Whether you use lean startup, design thinking, customer development, etc. You don't have to put a name to this - Just put user and customer at the center, your top priority. If you really care about them, solving their problems and be everything for them, you will consider all aspects of their journey to achieve them and make it the best experience for them.

In my experience, customer focused approaches like creating customer personas and proper segmentation then targeting each segment with the right consumer interviews and other ways of market research that will lead to understanding customer journey and drawing empathy maps or pain points will definitely add lots of innovations and collaboration

Once your product hits the market, it no longer belongs to you. So innovation in a silo within your organization is a recipe for failure The development of new features should be wholly centered around the client, regardless of whether insights originate from online feedback forms, tracking usage metrics, or other sources. Contemplate the formation of a network of power customers, a dedicated space for ideation and collaboration. Additionally, setting up a sandbox to experiment and learn with these influential customers is highly advantageous. This approach takes on even greater significance in the realm of B2B businesses, where the seamless integration of systems and data is of paramount importance.

While solutions are important, the focus should be on the underlying problem to ensure the solutions resonate with customer needs. Deep Dive into the Problem: Before diving into ideation or prototyping, it's essential to deeply understand the problem space. Ask "why" multiple times to get to the root cause. Flexibility: As we navigate digital innovation, it's crucial to maintain an adaptive mindset. Not every solution will fit every problem. Being adaptable ensures that we address the core issue rather than just implementing a trendy tech fix. Iterative Feedback Loops: After deploying a solution, continuous feedback is essential. This loop allows for refining solutions and ensuring they still target the initial problem.

There's a way to co-create with customers. Build something internally, then show to customers to get feedback. Then go back and iterate internally. Repeat until they are happy. But beware of personal preferences, they are not the kind of feedback you should take in.

Co-create with your customer, let them verify the problem statement and offer their opinion step by step. This way they will co-own the success and feel part of a bigger purpose which is your brand purpose.

Absolutely, involving customers in the ideation and prototyping stages is a crucial step in the digital innovation process. It not only ensures that the final product meets their needs but also creates a sense of ownership and satisfaction among customers. Techniques like brainstorming and mind mapping can lead to innovative solutions, and using digital tools like chatbots or mobile apps makes the collaboration process seamless. Additionally, testing prototypes through methods like usability testing and A/B testing provides valuable insights for refining and perfecting the final product. This customer-centric approach significantly increases the likelihood of a successful and well-received digital innovation.

Call it whatever you want. Lean, agile, scrum. There's only 1 thing here that matters, iterate rapidly. 1. Get feedback 2. Improve the product 3. Use it Repeat 1,2,3 quickly.

Implementing agile and iterative development is paramount in today's rapidly evolving business landscape. It allows for continuous refinement based on real-time feedback, ensuring that the final product is precisely aligned with customer expectations. The use of frameworks like Scrum or Kanban provides a structured yet flexible approach to development, while tools like project management software and video conferencing facilitate seamless communication and collaboration. This approach not only fosters a dynamic and customer-focused development process but also positions businesses to swiftly adapt to shifting market dynamics and evolving customer preferences. It's a win-win strategy for both the company and its valued customers.

The agile and iterative approach is crucial for customer-centric digital innovation. However, it's equally important to have a robust feedback loop that goes beyond just the development team and the customer. Involving cross-functional teams—such as marketing, sales, and customer support—in these sprints can provide a 360-degree view of customer needs and market dynamics. This holistic approach ensures that the digital solutions are not just technically sound but also align with broader business objectives and market trends. Additionally, leveraging data analytics can offer actionable insights into customer behavior, helping to refine the product in real-time.

Break down the silos. Co-creation shouldn't end after the workshop ends. Continuously co-create with cross-functional teams across levels. Co-creation is not the same as meeting with x-functional teams to show progress and updates. Co-creation is working session that you collaborate together.

Absolutely! Fostering a culture of co-creation and learning is the cornerstone of successful digital innovation. Treating customers as active partners, rather than passive recipients, empowers them to contribute their unique insights and ideas. Inviting them to be part of the innovation journey not only strengthens the product but also builds a deeper connection with the customer base. Encouraging experimentation with digital solutions not only leads to valuable feedback but also promotes a culture of continuous improvement. Recognizing and rewarding their contributions further solidifies this collaborative relationship. This approach not only builds trust and loyalty but also creates a virtuous cycle of feedback and innovation

The innovation process through its creation stage has two main paths: 1.- Internal innovation: this process develops when an idea or improvement is born inside of an organization or business. 2.- External innovation: this process is created outside of an organization or business. In both cases, the new service or product shall be tested in the market. Afterwards, the process of co-creation begins as well as the continuous improvement.

Fostering a culture of co-creation and learning is pivotal in today's digital landscape. However, it's equally important to maintain a balance between customer-driven innovation and a company's core competencies. While customer input is invaluable, it should be filtered through a lens of strategic alignment to ensure that the innovations serve both the customer and the business effectively. Additionally, the process of co-creation should be agile and iterative, allowing for quick pivots based on real-time feedback without derailing the overall innovation strategy. This ensures that you're not just building what customers say they want, but what aligns with your long-term vision and market positioning.

For many companies it is hard to innovate in the existing organsation. You might want to consider building a small, flexible "newco" where you can use these Design Thinking principles to re-invent your proposition. This is where you analyze, prototype, test and rebuild before you deploy to your "real" organisation.

Encouraging experimentation with digital solutions not only leads to valuable feedback but also promotes a culture of continuous improvement. Recognizing and rewarding their contributions further solidifies this collaborative relationship. This approach not only builds trust and loyalty but also creates a virtuous cycle of feedback and innovation, propelling the company forward in its digital endeavors.

Encourage a true test and learn approach where experimentations are encouraged including confirming what doesn’t work. Build the culture of co-creation and collaboration where any solo is being broken and not teams and squads are encouraged.

I'm passionate about ExOs and the idea of crafting a Massive Transformation Purpose (MTP) that converts your audience into a loyal community. By cultivating a group of 'in-love' clients, you're igniting exponential growth. It's more than a strategy; it's a movement. Some successful samples: ??SpaceX | Making humanity a multi-planetary species; ? Google | Organizing the world’s information; ??Tesla | Accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation; ? TED | Ideas worth spreading; ? Nike | Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.