Innovative refill concepts for new customer value-creation and decreased environmental impact

Purpose and goal

The project aimed to engage lead users to see if that is a way to meet challenges in the cosmetics industry. A further aim was to understand how von Hippel´s lead user method can be adapted to Swedish businesses. The project´s goal was to create innovative packaging concept in wellness by engaging lead users. The project has, wherever possible, followed the steps in von Hippel´s lead user method and conducted in September an innovation workshop that resulted in new concepts and ideas. The project has also gotten knowledge in terms of applying the method in enterprises.

Results and expected effects

The project has during the process identified various lead users and committed some of these on the final innovation workshop. At workshop ideas and concepts were created that were linked to the research question but it also revealed much that had a more indirect link based on need of the lead users. The project has also received teachings and identified challenges in terms of applying the method in industry.

Approach and implementation

The project has, wherever possible, followed the steps in von Hippel´s lead user method and conducted in September an innovation workshop that resulted in new concepts and ideas. The lessons about the application of the method in business is from a corporate perspective that implementation must be customized to match existing working models around similar processes. We also believe that the method is more or less applicable depending on the research question, for some problems, a different approach may be preferable. This analysis should be done early in the project.