Listen to the tech users – they have created some of the biggest disruptions in history

In 1971, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the forerunner of the modern Internet, had about 1,000 users. The @ symbol it was a vague sign. Next, the engineer Ray Tomlinson changed everything by creating a system for sending messages to other computers on the ARPANET network, using the @ symbol to indicate who each message belonged to. Email was born.

One of the greatest inventions of the digital age was not created by a company looking for a product to sell. It was cooked by a user who has a problem to solve. Tomlinson he said he didn’t even know what he had done until almost 25 years later, in 1993.

Users were also behind the creation of dishwasher (partner looking to make cleaning up the dinner party easier), the phone (an engineer who wants to talk to his wife upstairs from his downstairs lab), the plastic contact lens (Optometrist tired of wearing heavy glasses) and modern technology companies like Airbnb (the founders rented an air mattress in their living room to help them make rent in their San Francisco apartment).

Users are the main source of disruptive innovation, yet they are often overlooked. We recently published an analysis of 60 cases of new disruptive products in the Journal of Product Innovation Managementfrom LASIK surgery to electronic devices. Our goal was to understand where the disruptive effects originate. We were surprised to find that almost half of the innovations we identified came from users, not developers.

Combining ‘knowledge needs’ and ‘helpful knowledge’

Users have a unique, close-up view of the problem – and know where current solutions fail. The current engineers and designers have a clear idea of ​​what the solutions will look like, but they are nowhere near what is needed. By combining the “critical knowledge” of users, with the “helpful knowledge,” companies can unlock many opportunities for growth and competitive advantage.

Disturbing thoughts B2C products and services often originate from consumers who want to satisfy their needs. Disruptive innovations in the B2B space can come from professionals looking for new tools or systems to do their jobs more effectively. For example, physician John H. Gibbon and his wife Mary developed a heart-lung machine and used it to perform the first successful open-heart surgeries.

Our lesson found that the most innovative products can be created by users and often occur at a time when customer needs are changing rapidly. On the other hand, innovations with high technical capabilities can be developed by manufacturers, who have the necessary technical skills. These tend to be introduced during times of rapid technological change.

Our research questions existing assumptions new distractions. The return story of entrepreneur Clayton Christensen has been that disruption comes from startups and other new players in the market, while incumbents often lag behind. Users are seen as part of the problem. When your customers are asking the same questions over and over again, there isn’t much room for innovation.

But our research shows that there is no one-size-fits-all template for disruptive products, and users can be a source of creative ideas rather than a barrier. While companies often look to users to explain how to use existing projects and innovate on the cutting edge, we’ve found that they can also create disruptive, game-changing innovations.

Tips for breaking new ground

So, how can your company display disruptive innovation from users? First, create a culture of innovation that values ​​input from outside the organization. Although the engineers in your R&D department are the experts on how to create something new, they are not the only ones responsible for what you need to build. Our research shows that it is even more important to seek out user-generated disruption at a time when customer needs are changing rapidly.

Talk to your customers and create ways to communicate and take action. Most companies are constantly tracking users and managing groups. But in order to recognize the dysfunctional mind, you need to go beyond what is happening to the things that exist and add unmet needs and pain. Customer complaints also provide insight into how existing solutions fail. AI tools make it easy to manage online user communities and monitor customer feedback, comments, and complaints.

Try to stay active on social media and online communities where people share new ways to update existing products and new job listings. Users also gather offline. In sports events you can find athletes DIYing ways to solve unmet needs. Mountain bikes were invented in the 1970s by riders who hooked up other types of bikes, called clunkers, to explore the beautiful off-road terrain of California.

Focus on the leaders who are at the forefront of the trend. Advanced users are often the first to see the rise in consumer needs that will be huge in the future, and they benefit from new solutions. Research shows what drives the user experience is more important for the business than for the average customer. However, take their recommendations with a grain of salt, as leading users sometimes appreciate functionality that most customers don’t care about. You can also look for leads in your group – for example, employees who work at a car company because they are auto aficionados.

Finally, explore ways to create products that encourage direct collaboration with user-initiators. For example, start a competition where customers submit ideas for new or innovative products, some of which can be very confusing. Or sponsor hackathons that bring together users with needs and technical experts to create solutions.

Companies are always looking for new frontiers, but they often miss one of the most powerful sources of innovative ideas – their users. By tapping into a large group of existing users and customers, you can leverage their skills and expertise to create disruptive innovations.

Christina Raasch is Professor of digital finance at Kühne LOgistics University in Germany. Tim Schweisfurth is Professor of organizational design and assistant engineering at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany.