Toolkits for user innovation allow manufacturers to " abandon their attempts to understand user needs in detail in favor of transferring need-related aspects of product and service development to users along with an appropriate toolkit". User toolkits are based on the idea that manufacturers possess the knowledge of the solution possibilities, while the users possess the knowledge about needs. This information is sticky and can therefore not be transferred easily between the user and the manufacturer.
User toolkits can be used in a variety of settings, and has been shown to be applicable in systems ranging from production of electronic circuitry to Apache security software (Franke & Von Hippel, 2003).
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Famous quotes containing the words user and/or innovation:
“A worker may be the hammer’s master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)