Co-Creation
The best way to innovate is to work with consumers up-stream not as a disaster check for ideas you made up in a vacuum. Many will say that consumers can't possibly imagine what they need/want but I would disagree. (By the way, there is no evidence that Henry Ford dissed the ability of consumers to think abstractly because there is no proof he actually uttered "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." )
Sample Methodologies
Client & Consumer Power Teams
Elbow to Elbow exercises
Inspiration Stations and Trend Intersections
5th Wall Missions
Ask me about the time...
- Women confessed their skincare sins so that we could build a line of products based on turning sin into solution
- Cracker lovers agreed to be blindfolded while they ate their favorites and imagined how form and flavor could evolve over time
- Millennials invented dozens of new ideas for scratch-off lottery tickets where money as a prize was taken off the table