By: Zach Kunz
Hopefully by now you all remember that consumer-driven innovation is new ideas and insights that have been derived directly from the consumers (Bannister, 2017). This differs from how many companies try to innovate, which is by creating something, changing a system, or otherwise trying to improve some aspect of life in a way that people will invest in it. Companies aren't the only entity that can use customer-driven innovation though; cities can as well.
Boston, for example, has done a tremendous job in using big data to analyze its population and provide for them in ways that are more beneficial. This is, in fact, a form of customer-driven innovation. While the customers, or in this case the residents, themselves are not submitting ideas of what should be created or done differently, the innovation is coming directly from how the residents interact with the city. The publication on city innovation summarizes it well, "If the right platforms can be developed, people can really be the ones to transform the cities they own" (Joshi-Ghani, et al., 2017).
Boston has combined the use of statistics, satisfaction data, and observations in order to make the city a place that better fits its people and a place where its people are satisfied. One way this happened was through the use of automatic sensors to know when the bus arrived on time or late (Joshi-Ghani, et al., 2017). In other situations, city workers must submit a form on their phone when they finish a job (Joshi-Ghani, et al., 2017). All of this has helped Boston to adapt various aspects of its city to better meet the needs of its citizens.
This model of innovating a city is something that many more cities in the future would benefit from (Ziadeh, 2016). Benefits would include improving ways of getting help to those being harassed, fixing city service complaints, understanding city economics, improving public transportation, citizens helping craft the city budget, improve awareness of criminal activity, reducing waste, improving tourism, and to become more sustainable (Joshi-Ghani, et al., 2017). Not only would this customer-driven innovation model improve cities, as it has Boston, it could also be applied to state and even federal government
So don't keep your mind closed off, following definitions at face value. The one who is going to win at business and innovation will be the one who isn't afraid to push the rules, test new ideas, and be creative in how one thinks. Don't make your innovative ideas fit into a pre-sized box, let them grow into whatever structure works best to get you and your business where you want to be, and let the data guide your path to success.
References:
Bannister, K. (2017). Keeping Up With Your Customers: Shifting to Consumer-Driven Innovation. brandwatch. Retrieved from: https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/customer-driven-innovation/
Joshi-Ghani, A., Ratti, C., Martin, C., Charles, A., Ziskind, J. (2017). Data Driven Cities 20 Stories of Innovation. Global Agenda. Retrieved from: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Top20_Global_Data_Stories_report_2017.pdf
Ziadeh, A. (2016). Boston Shares its CityScore Secrets. GCN. Retrieved from: https://gcn.com/articles/2016/08/31/boston-cityscore-github.aspx
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