This is the presentation I held at the General Online research Conference in Düsseldorf on March 16th 2011. #gor11 Some great thoughts are taken from Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone whose social design patterns are truly inspiring for everyone who conducts qualitative digital research with communities. A great thanks also goes to Eric von Hippel, who made his publications downloadable at http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/

1. CO -CREATION WITH LEAD USERS
ON THE DIGITAL RESEARCH PLATFORM dieNEONauten.de
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2. AGENDA
1. The Idea behind dieNEONauten.de
2. Lead User Approach & Social Design
3. Case
4. Summary
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3. QUALITATI VE DIGITAL RESEARCH 2.0
Qualitative Digital
Research 2.0
Netnography Crowdsourcing Co-Creation
Observing Leveraging Creating
and listening the wisdom of knowledge and
the crowds innovation through
collaboration
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4. The Idea
The idea behind dieNEONauten.de
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5. THE IDEA: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 2.0
Social Media Innovation Platform
250 Selected Lead Users
+
Web 2.0 Innovation Platform
+
Collaborative Online Research
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6. 1. LEAD USERS FROM THE GENERATION NEON
The NEONauts are between 20 and 35
years old and show an above-average
interest in novelties and trends. They
are well educated and trend-oriented.
On the basis of a detailed screening
process we have chosen 250
consumption-visionaries for our
NEONauten-community.
Quelle: ma 2010 II 6

7. 2. WEB 2.0 INNOVATION PLATFORM
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8. 3. COLLABORATIVE ONLINE RESEARCH
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9. SOCIAL COMMUNITIES IN MARKET RESEARCH
How do you spark self-dynamic processes?
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10. SOCIAL COMMUNITIES IN MARKET RESEARCH
How do you spark self-dynamic processes?
1. Connect to the right people (lead users)
2. Facilitate dynamic interaction (social design)
3. Create an experience for everyone (experience design)
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11. Lead User Approach
Connecting to the right people
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12. LEAD USER DEFINITION
1. Lead users face needs that will be
general in a marketplace, but they
face them months or years before
the bulk of that marketplace
encounters them, and …
2. Lead users are positioned to benefit
significantly by obtaining a
solution to those needs.
Source: Von Hippel, E.; Democratizing Innovation; The MIT Press: 2006
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/butchgaudy/3231258347/

13. LEAD USER RECRUITMENT
General Screening / Specific Screening /
Deselection Selection
Creativity Personality Values & Intrinsic Product
Lifestyle Motivation Affinity
Selection for specific
research projects

14. LEAD USER RECRUITMENT - EXAMPLE
e.g. ‘How often have you gone hiking
Quantitative Screening
in the past 2 years?’
+
e.g. ‘What was the latest intense nature
Qualitative Sampling
experience that you have had?’

15. Social Design
Facilitating dynamic interaction
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16. SOCIAL DESIGN
Give people a way to be identified
- Enable user profiles
- Connect individual posts to profiles
Source / Inspiration: Christian Crumlish, http://www.designingsocialinterfaces.com/ 16

17. SOCIAL DESIGN
Enable a bridge to real life events
- No fear of online-offline-designs
- Addressing people offline increases
relevance
Source / Inspiration: Alex Bowyer, Design Patterns for Social Experience 17

18. SOCIAL DESIGN
Talk like a person
- Conversational language
- Be frank and sincere
- Ask questions
Source / Inspiration: Christian Crumlish, http://www.designingsocialinterfaces.com/ 18

19. Case
The NEONauten research for Austria Tourism
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20. OBJECTI VES AND RESEARCH DESIGN
Objective: Lead question: What is the character
Explore the character of nature experiences of the NEONauten
of nature experiences and how do these qualities connect to
the topic of hiking?
Method: Qualitative online research with
Collaborative Mind Map 16 participants, duration 1 week, creation
of a shared mind map centered around
the topics ‘hiking’ and ‘nature experience’.
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23. NEED STATE MAPPING
Mapping of
different facets of
nature experiences
connected to
hiking
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24. NEED STATE DESCRIPTION
Detailed
description of each
facet of nature
experience
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25. VERBATIMS AND PHOTOS ILLUSTRATE THE RESULTS
Verbatims and
photos by the
participants
illustrate the results
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26. Summary
New challenges! New opportunities!
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27. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
New challenges … New opportunities …
Recruitment Spotting weak signals
Social Design Reaching difficult target groups
Experience Design Connecting clients to their target groups
Creating space for innovations
Giving authentic insights into
the participants’ lives
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28. Thank you.
NEONauten Consulting, NEON Magazin GmbH, Am Baumwall 11, 20459 Hamburg
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