Assignment task:
The front-end work of the development process is critical for the success of new products. This is where the research into customer or user needs is typically conducted. However, not all users or customers are equal in terms of being able to provide valuable insights informing new product development. Several sources of innovation are presented in the readings.
Lead users are a specific "breed" of users, as they might have precious "need information" or "solution information" that are of great interest to innovating firms.
In a similar fashion, crowdsourcing has become a prominent way to harness the wisdom of the crowd for the identification of needs and solutions. But there is no one-approach-fits-all when reaching out to the masses.
What is the value of lead user idea generation and crowdsourcing for new product development and provide a specific example that has benefitted from one of the approaches? How could an organization benefit(ed) from lead user idea generation or crowdsourcing?