Browsing by Author "Erkko, Eeva"

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  • Social factors influencing idea evaluation
    (2013-01-27) Erkko, Eeva
     Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Bachelor's thesis
  • User Research in Commercialization - Why and How
    (2016-06-07) Erkko, Eeva
     Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis
    User and customer interaction has been recognized vital for the success of new products. User research that aims to understand the user’s life, emotions, and dreams, is usually done in the front end of innovation, and in the product development phase. However, commercialization phase relies on market research that provides numerical and generalized results. Previous literature uncovers some benefits of utilizing user research methods also during commercialization activities, but the findings are scattered. This study explores what types of benefits companies can achieve from conducting user research during commercialization. Furthermore, this study examines which user research approaches companies use, and what kind of knowledge these methods produce. The study was conducted as a multiple case study at four Finnish B2B industrial companies. One of these companies was studied more closely with an action research approach. The end users of their product were studied with a diverse set of methods in order to evaluate the applicability of user research approaches in practice. Complementing the scattered findings of the literature, this study suggests a new model called Value Wheel which classifies the benefits of user research. The model demonstrates the different types of benefits a company can seek when planning for user research in commercialization. Furthermore, this study shows that companies should utilise observational and participatory methods in addition to the traditional market research methods. Using a diverse set of methods enables a comprehensive understanding of the users. What is more, this study suggests an extension to a classification of user research methods, and further divides the methods depending on whether they involve end users directly or indirectly.