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The Pitfalls of Customer-Led Innovation

Relying on customer input to guide innovation is not all it's cracked up to be.

Adam Richardson
Adam Richardson is the director of product strategy at frog design, where he guides strategy engagements for frog's international roster of clients, envisioning and creating new products, consumer electronics, and digital experiences. Adam combines a background in industrial design, interaction design, and sociology, and spends most of his time on convergent designs that combine hardware, software, service, brand, and retail. He writes and speaks extensively on design, business, culture, and technology, and runs his own Richardsona blog.
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Adam Richardson

We had a panel discussion a couple of days ago as part of the launch event for my new book, Innovation X, that looked at the topic of how doing customer research can lead you astray when doing innovation. It was a lively panel, including Don Norman, Eric Ryan (co-founder of Method Home), Jon Pitmann (VP at Autodesk), and Quentin Hardy (National Editor, Forbes) moderating, in addition to myself.

I gave a brief presentation to talk about the book and some common traps that companies fall into when using customer research to guide innovation. Here's a Slideshare version of it with some extra annotation to make it easier to follow without the voiceover.

Innovation X Book Launch Presentation
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