How users and employees interact when developing a new product

The purpose of this book is to study the interaction between users and employees when developing a new product. Despite the increasing interest in studying user involvementlittle research has examined the social aspects of the innovation process. With a multiple case studyusers and employees from creative companies are interviewed. By analysing actions between users and employees three modes of user involvement are identified emphasising how users can be involved differently: to inspire the employee (inspiring mode) to diffuse the reputation of the new product (legitimising mode) and to qualify the new product (sensemaking mode). The key findings underline the importance of observing actions taken by users and employees in order to discover new innovation potential such as inspiring diffusing or qualifying a new product. The book reveals insight about the source of innovation derived from the interaction between users and employees highlighting the importance of the employee in user involvement. The findings are valuable to researchers as well as managers to gain in-depth knowledge on the processes of involving the users.