Identifying lead users (5)

The most common question in market research and surveys is: How to find lead users?
In the 1st phase of market research, research teams interview lead users to gain insight into the
future need of the mass market. Then, in later phases, they work with innovating lead users to
develop their new products and services concepts.
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Professor Eric von Hippel explains the distinguishing characteristics of lead users. And from
there, he illustrates the unique and valuable information that lead users can provide.
How do lead users differ from the mass of users in an intended target market? They differ in
two ways: first, they are ahead of a trend that is important in a target market; and second, they
have a high incentive to solve the needs that they have encountered there at the leading edge.
Manufacturers can find the solutions that lead users have developed and bring them back to
the target market.
It is important to understand that lead users are not the same as the early adopters.
- Early adopters are the first to adopt commercially available products and services.
- Lead users experienced it before there is a responsive product or service to adopt. So
the lead users have to develop a solution for themselves.
Lead users are people whose needs are far ahead of market trends. They can be at the leading
edge of a target market, or they may be found in other applications altogether that are ahead
of all the lead users in the target market. According to Dr. Anthony Hall, the lead user
methodology allows us to work with people that experience the future before most. And so by
talking with those individuals, we can mine their innovations and commercialize them more
readily.
Eg: lead users of breaking applications in aerospace are ahead of even lead users in the
automotive field. So automotive firms often find innovations in that advanced application.

Lead users are companies and individuals – customers and noncustomers. They are users
simply because they develop a solution in order to use it rather than to sell it. Lead users are
seldom interested in commercializing their innovations. Their innovative for their own
purposes as exiting products fail to meet their needs.
Eg: The inventors of skateboards and mountain bikes are examples of individual lead users.
They develop them because of what they could do with them. The mass market of users
followed later.
Lead users and applications outside of your target market often be the most likely sources of
out-of-the-box solutions. As illustration at your firm makes sandpaper and has a major market
among furniture refinisher.
Eg: In the furniture refinishing field, a major trend involves the more careful preservation of the
wood surface underneath the old finish. Lead users outside the furniture market might include
those who refinish aircraft they must avoid damaging the surface of the airplane metal when
removing old paint, or they could radically reduce the strength of the metal.

Types of information and insights that project teams will acquire from interviewing lead
users. Teams find that lead users often have novel product and service ideas or even prototype
solutions that are pertinent to the problem areas they are researching and very important. Lead
users often help teams improve their understanding of the critical emerging needs of targeted
users by virtue of their experiences at the leading edge.
Learning how lead users view a problem is as important as learning what they know about that
problem. Their view can lead to discovery of unexpected new insights and out-of-the-box
solutions.
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Doctor Joan Churchill describe the 3-step process for efficiently locating lead users.
1. Identifying major trends. A search must always begin with a trend analysis because by
definition, lead users have needs that are ahead of others with respect to specific
trends.
2. Generating ideas on possible sources of lead users.
3. Building a network to find lead users, especially those who have really novel surprise
information to offer.
Dr. Churchill also illustrates a real-world lead user project conducted at Nortel Networks – a
global internet and communications leader with capabilities spanning optical, wireless internet,
local internet and E-business.
In 1999, Nortel Networks conducted a lead users study to uncover a whole new class of web
applications for voice video and data. After interviewing experts in different fields, they decided
to focus on the critical mobility needs of wireless Internet users. (step 1)
(step 2) Nortel Networks then gave the key attributes that lead users should have, including:
- Need for high mobility
- Need for both data and voice communication
- Need for real-time and location-based data
The team thought of law enforcement officers and paramedics as two possible lead users
sources because they operate from mobile offices and require continuous information. In fields
outside the target market, the team thought of specialists associated with the military who
were working on wireless Internet applications.
(step 3) After interviewing experts with both knowledge and innovativeness, the team had a
number of important discoveries. They found that lead users shared a common need to obtain
real-time location-based information that was linked to them at all times. The team finally
sought out lead users among professional storm trackers – a group with a high need for both
real-time and location-based data. The team found that those storm trackers had developed
innovative ways to send and receive fast changing weather data among multiple vehicles
chasing unpredictable storms.