One of the most interesting ways that marketers are using online communities is to involve customers in their innovation or new product development processes. At Forrester, we’ve called this ‘ultimate’ in consumer focus Consumer-Driven Innovation or CDI. CDI is:

A process that uses consumer-generated content, consumer interaction, insights, and feedback to create and shape new products and services, build business processes, and sculpt customer experiences that yield revenues and profits.

CDI enables marketers to anticipate consumer needs and introduce new products and experiences that delight consumers and drive growth.

So how do online communities fit in? I see three opportunities:

1. Farm latent needs for marketing, strategy, and R&D teams. Understanding latent needs ” those things no one really tells you ” uncovers opportunity for important innovation. Online communities allow marketers to see consumers in their “natural” settings and actively listen to – and participate in – discussions.
2. Collaborate to refine product concepts and prototypes. Some brands will work with product owners or prospects during an iterative design phase, going back and forth with the community on ideas and concepts. Del Monte discovered that highly invested dog owners wanted breakfast foods for their pets while interacting with them in an online private community. And created a new product, including packaging and naming, with the extended consumer team.
3. Use consumer feedback to tune launch and execution. Other organizations profit from their support communities to actively encourage customer feedback on products and services already in the field. The key here is to make sure the good ideas can bubble to the top and to actually use this feedback to improve your offer.

Involving consumers and customers in product development should be a priority for any enterprise. The challenge is that new product development crosses a number of departments and affects different organizations. Marketing must play its role as customer advocate and install the customer at the center of the product development. And communities are clearly a helping hand in connecting with customers.

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