User Collaboration Through Private Online Communities
ThomasTroch, Tom De Ruyck · 2014
This chapter provides the product development professional with a hands-on guide to integrate user collaboration through private online communities in the innovation practice. It starts with the rationale for collaborating with users; and provides a comparison of different methods and when to use them. The chapter then describes the main objectives of such collaboration, illustrated with case studies. Finally, it provides a step-by-step manual for setting up the user community. There are different ways of being open; the most popular ones are crowdsourcing and co-creation. The main characteristic of crowdsourcing is that it is an open call to the world to help solve a problem. A private online community involves users in a more structural way in comparison to focus groups—one of the most popular approaches to involve users in innovation.