Collective Innovation Practice through User-centred Design Thinking

Establishing a collective innovative practice within a value chain is vital as competition often takes place between supply chains rather than individual companies (Lambert, 2006). This requires new new innovative approaches and an adaptive learning culture (Tyre and von Hippel 1997). User driven innovation has added significant aspects to the field of innovation management (e.g. Chesbrough, 2003) and companies can innovate with user collaboration or amplified notion of user together with hybrid collaborative constellations and new ways of working (von Hippel 2005). This paper examines how design thinking with its principles and mind-set can facilitate a common and collaborative effort within a value chain towards a joint innovative practice. Design thinking is unfolded through existing literature and it’s virtue as a facilitating and joining approach is tested through the application within the research project Innodoors.It is concluded user-centred material through the video media can enable practitioners from a value chain to establish a common understanding of innovation paths – potential directions for innovation. In addition it is concluded that design thinking can be adapted by practitioners with little or none design experience and thereby be applied in a collaborative and innovative setting.