Defence of dissertation in the field of mechanical engineering, Pia Helminen, Lic.Sc. (Tech.)

Advancing the Lead User Method and its Adoption in Organizations.

The public examination of the doctoral dissertation of Pia Helminen, Lic.Sc. (Tech.), will be held on 23 September 2016 at 13.00 at the Aalto University School of Engineering. The title of the dissertation is Advancing the Lead User Method and its Adoption in Organizations.

Opponent: Professor Christian Lüthje, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany

Supervisor: Professor Kalevi Ekman, Aalto University

Tutor: Professor Sampsa Hyysalo, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design, and Architecture, Department of Design

Electronic dissertation thesis: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/21927

Contact information: Pia Helminen, tel. +35850 919 5484, pia.helminen@iki.fi

A key to being a successful business is not only being able to respond to demand but being able to anticipate future demand. This is easier said than done, as understanding what users need is one of the areas of most persistent and costly failure in product development. The importance of involving users in the development of both products and services has been widely noted, but some users develop solutions on their own. This is not a marginal phenomenon, but innovation by users and so called lead users can be found in all fields ranging from post-it-notes to sporting equipment and surgical instruments to banking services, for example. The lead user method is described as a process that companies could apply in their product or service development in order to benefit from lead users. Despite its documented advantages, the LU method has not gained ground as a standard part of companies' toolbox for product and service development.

In this dissertation, a qualitative approach building on semi-experimental set-ups, a multiple case study, and a longitudinal two-case case study was used to explore the challenges involved in the use of the LU method and to provide remedy and direction for its use in organizations that are seeking to benefit from lead users. First, this dissertation improves the concepts and means available for lead user identification. Second, it generates more understanding on and alternative means for transferring the lead user knowledge. Third, it sheds light on the factors that challenge the adoption of the LU method in an organization and provides suggestions on how the adoption hurdles could be overcome.

It was found that instead of general resistance to user ideas or new ways of working or the cost and time required by the LU method, it is the difficulty of transferring and retaining the knowledge of how to conduct a LU project that hinders its adoption in an organization. The case analyses demonstrate that the LU method features skill components that are more costly and difficult (i.e. "sticky") to transmit among employees than the adopter organizations were prepared for. Rather ironically, it is the same phenomenon that user innovation research has identified as one of the key reasons for why users hold solution and trend information and why lead users should be utilized in the first place.