Co-creation is involving your customers or end-users in one or more stages of the innovation process. A deep insight in the needs of your customers and users is after all crucial for creating added value. Co-creation is a real collaboration with your customers, by really letting them share their thoughts and ideas about your future products or services. This could vary from involving your customer in the first stage of generating new ideas to involving them in the final phase of your product or concept development.

 

Co-creation has the following benefits:

 

• It increases the success rate of new innovations.

• It makes your organisation more customer-oriented.

• It improves the relationship with your customers.

 

We made an overview of the five types of co-creation:

 

 

1. Co-creation Workshops

 

Specific users (preferably so-called ‘lead users’) are involved in brainstorm sessions to generate ideas or involved in concept workshops to enhance ideas. Co-creation workshops are especially suitable to gain more insight in the needs of your customers or to find ideas that are relatively easy to implement on short or middle long term.

 

Almost all companies focused on innovation use this type of co-creation.

 

2. CrowdSourcing   You define a question or problem for a large audience and offer a reward for 'the winning idea’. The interaction with the customer is minimal, since the ideas are developed by the customer themselves.   Crowdsourcing is applicable in three situations:   You have a concrete (technical) problem for which you want a solution. A good example is the “Connect + Develop” programme of P&G.   You are looking for inspiration through new ideas that will expand your employees’ views. A good example is Elektrolux, who annually organise a successful contest for students.  You want to generate a lot of free publicity around an upcoming product. You promise that the winning idea will be brought to market. Examples are Mona’s “Pimp my Pudding”, the HEMA design contest, and the T-shirt maker Threadless who’s entire business model is based on co-creation and is now selling 80.000 co-created T-shirts per month.

3. Open source

 

A (large) number of volunteers are actively involved in development and maintenance of a product. Open source is often applied with the development of software. It is very suitable if you want to set a new technical standard.

 

Examples of successful products are Linux and Firefox. Also the non-profit organisation Creative Commons stimulates this type of co-creation with great success.  

 

4. Mass Customisation

 

Customers can design their own product within the framework you define. This generally means that a customer can select different shapes, colours or materials for the product parts. This makes him willing to pay a premium price for the product. Mass customisation can accomplish a lot for your brand and positioning and it can turn your customers into ambassadors.

 

Examples of successful products for mass customisation are NikeID and Lego Factory.

  

5. User-generated content

 

Customers create their own ‘products’ that they share through your system or platform. User-generated content is especially suitable for digital products and services. If you can create the right platform, it will spread rapidly and your platform can even become a brand on it’s own.

 

Examples are YouTube, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Flickr and the numerous blogs on the Internet.

 

SunIdee can help you determine the right co-creation approach for your organisation and compose this into a creative and effective program. We help you find the right participants, organise co-creation workshops and guide the process of implementing co-creation processes in your organisation. With our customised innovation tools we offer an inspiring co-creation process with clear objectives in mind.

 

Like to know more? Contact us for more information.