Customer as a Resource

The first customer role identified by Nambisan (2002) is customer as a

resource,. In the case of the LEGO Group (Tidd and Bessant, 2013), the
company identified and encouraged key users and designers to
contribute their ideas which led to the creation of 76 new product
designs, produced and sold by LEGO. In 2008, one of the Adult Fans of
LEGO (AFOLs) had pitched in an his idea of architectural sets of wellknown buildings which eventually led to the release of LEGO
Architecture range (Ringen, 2015). These lead users and AFOLs are a
source of product conceptualization which is the essence of New
Product Development (NPD) however they are only a source of
information and are not directly involved in generating product
solutions (Christensen, 1997; Cui and Wu, 2015).
Advantages
User innovators help moderate economic risks associated with
launching new product (Ogawa and Piller, 2006). Companies can
recognize the needs and wants of their niche market in advance, hence
reducing the risks of product failure. Similarly, LEGO Group was
successful in selling half of the initial run of LEGO Architecture sets in
the first ten days (Hunter, 2015). It generated approximately $50
million worth of PR coverage and attained high customer
satisfaction levels with a repurchase intent of up to 90 per cent
(Naldal, 2011).

In the case of the Ben and Jerrys, the company had launched a
campaign My Ben and Jerrys inviting customers to contribute new
product ideas (pre-packaged ice cream) on its social media pages
combined with television (Sawhney, Verona and Prandelli, 2005) which
led to a peak engagement rate of 15.2 per cent on Twitter as well
as 61 per cent increase in mentions on social media when combined
with television (Biz.twitter.com, 2013).
Similarly, LEGO Group was successful in selling half of the initial run of
LEGO Architecture sets in the first ten days (Hunter, 2015). It
generated approximately $50 million worth of PR coverage and
attained high customer satisfaction levels with a repurchase intent
of up to 90 per cent (Naldal, 2011).
Disadvantages

Lead users fail to represent the majority of the diverse user population,
hence innovations are narrowly focused (Antorini and Muniz Jr., 2013).