Innovation Through Incremental Product Creation

Since its establishment, 3M Corporation has driven its innovation through incremental product creation. The company believed in and thrived on incremental, not radical, innovations around its product lines. 3M had always been so innovation-driven that it allowed its staff to spend 15% of their time on exploring new ideas and new products. As for market research, this process was outsourced to a third-party. However, all this changed with the implementation of lead user research.

This new strategy for innovation focused on the idea that "certain consumers experienced needs ahead of other consumers and that some of the former would seek to innovate on their own." Lead user research believed that through the gathering and collaboration of consumers and experts in certain fields, a product's likelihood for success and satisfaction of a consumer demand would dramatically increase. Unlike traditional market research methods, which involved individuals collecting feedback from target consumers, lead user research involved the proactive approach of physically gathering experts from various fields to form innovative products collectively. By having a diverse group of experts, it allowed more creative thinking and diversified thoughts on innovation.

Understanding consumer demand can be a challenging task for any business. It requires extensive market research and as much direct feedback as possible from the consumers. For years, 3M had outsourced their market research and it had been a successful strategy. However, recently, the way to regain the company's closeness to the consumer is to bring this process back internally. 3M has been losing its effective relationship with the customers through hiring a third-party to conduct this crucial stage of product creation. By making market research an internal process once again, it will allow 3M to more closely identify and align with consumer preferences and demand.

The Medical-Surgical team exercised the lead user research methodology firsthand. As for whether it was a success, it definitely was. While there is the heated debate about whether 3M should begin making more upstream products, this debate for innovation is something that never would have arisen through traditional market research methods. Using a 4-Stage process ending with Final Concept Generation, the Medical-Surgical team focused on lead user research's fundamental concept of diversification; this