Listen to your technology users — they have led to the most disruptive innovations in history

In 1971, Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the precursor to the modern internet, had about 1,000 users. The @ sign was an obscure symbol. Then, engineer Ray Tomlinson changed everything by creating a system to send messages to other computers on the ARPANET network, using the @ sign to indicate who each message was for. Email was born.

One of the biggest inventions of the digital era wasn’t created by a company looking for a product to sell. It was cooked up by a user with a problem to solve. Tomlinson said he didn’t even fully realize what a big deal his invention was until almost 25 years later, in 1993.

Users were also behind the invention of the dishwasher (a socialite looking to make dinner party cleanup easier), the telephone (an engineer who wanted to talk to his wife upstairs from his basement lab), the plastic contact lens (an optometrist tired of wearing thick heavy glasses) and even modern tech companies like Airbnb (the founders rented an air mattress in their living room to help make rent on their San Francisco apartment).

Users are a major source of disruptive innovation, yet they are often overlooked. We recently published an analysis of 60 cases of disruptive innovation in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, from LASIK surgery to electric power tools. Our goal was to understand where disruptive innovation originates. We were surprised to find that nearly half the innovations we identified came from users, rather than producers.

Combining ‘need knowledge’ and ‘solution knowledge’

Users have a unique, close-up view of a problem — and know where current solutions fall short. Technical experts and existing producers have a clearer sense of what potential solutions could look like, but they aren’t as close to the need. By combining users’ “need knowledge,” with their own “solution knowledge,” companies can unlock a wealth of opportunities for growth and competitive advantage.

Disruptive ideas for B2C products and services often arise from individual consumers looking to meet their own needs. Disruptive innovation in the B2B space can come from professionals looking for new tools or systems to do their jobs more effectively. For instance, physician John H. Gibbon and his wife Mary developed the heart-lung machine and used it to perform one of the first successful open-heart surgeries.

Our study found that products offering dramatically new functionalities are more likely to be developed by users and often arise in times when customer needs are changing rapidly. On the other hand, innovations with high technological novelty are more likely to be generated by producers, who have the necessary technical expertise. These tend to originate in moments of rapid technological change.

Our research calls into question existing thinking about disruptive innovation. The narrative going back to businessman Clayton Christensen has been that disruption comes from startups and other new players in a market, while large incumbents generally lag behind. Users are seen as part of the problem. When your customers keep asking for the same thing over and over, there isn’t much room to innovate.

But our research shows that there isn’t just one template for disruptive innovation, and users can be a source of ingenious ideas rather than a barrier. While companies often look to users for input on how to tweak existing projects and innovate around the margins, we found that they can also generate disruptive, game-changing innovation.

Tips to support disruptive innovation

So, how can your company surface truly disruptive innovation from users? First, create a culture of open innovation that values insights from outside the organization. While the technical geniuses in your R&D department are experts in how to build something new, they aren’t the only authorities on what it is you should build. Our research suggests that it’s especially important to seek out user-generated disruption at times when customer needs are changing rapidly.

Talk to your customers and create channels for dialogue and engagement. Most companies regularly survey users and conduct focus groups. But to identify truly disruptive ideas, you need to go beyond reactions to existing products and plumb unmet needs and pain points. Customer complaints also offer insight into how existing solutions fall short. AI tools make it easier to monitor user communities online and analyze customer feedback, reviews, and complaints.

Keep your pulse on social media and online user communities where people share innovative ways to adapt existing products and wish lists for new functionalities. Users also congregate offline. At sporting events you may find athletes DIYing custom solutions to unmet needs. Mountain bikes were invented in the 1970s by riders who cobbled together custom bikes, called clunkers, to explore beautiful off-road landscapes in California.

Focus on lead users who are ahead of the trends. Lead users are often the first to see rising consumer needs that will be dominant in the future, and they stand to benefit from new solutions. Research shows that lead user ideas are much more valuable commercially than those from the average customer. However, take their input with a grain of salt, as lead users sometimes value niche functionalities that mainstream customers won’t care about. You can also look for lead users embedded within your organization — for instance, employees who work for a car company because they are auto aficionados.

Lastly, explore co-creation initiatives that foster direct collaboration with user innovators. For instance, run a contest where customers submit ideas for new products or features, some of which could turn out to be truly disruptive. Or sponsor hackathons that bring together users with needs and technical experts to design solutions.

Companies are always looking for an innovation edge, but they often miss one of the most powerful sources of groundbreaking ideas — their own users. By tapping into the vast pool of existing users and customers, you can harness their creativity and expertise to fuel truly disruptive innovation.

Christina Raasch is Professor of digital economy at Kühne Logistics University in Germany. Tim Schweisfurth is Professor of organizational design and collaboration engineering at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany.