Eric Von Hippel suggests that products, systems and services are shaped by "lead users" who are ahead of the marketplace trends. He argues that businesses should redesign their processes so as to co-develop and co-design with customers at all stages.
Customers express their ideas, form innovation communities and sometimes even develop the new product, system or service themselves. Examples include the open source software movement and several recent products for the home. http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/books.htm
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