Co-creation, what is it good for?

So what is this co-creation you’re starting to hear about?

It’s actually a business strategy focusing on customer experience and interactive relationships. Co-creation allows and encourages a more active involvement from the customer to create a value rich experience. As there are several ways to tackle uncertainty in building new products (Lean, Agile, Iterate…) it came to our attention that most of them still are reactive to customer feedback and focus on limiting the investment to validate assumptions and/or hypothesises. In that sense we limit the cost of learning we as organization and customers go through.

But what about avoiding this cost from the start? What about being pro-active to customer feedback? What about being really innovative? What about delighting the customer from the start? What about… ? That’s where co-creation comes into play.

A model, system, process where all relevant stakeholders are participating across the value chain. An approach that is not just about a one-sided contribution model as in “give me your ideas and we’ll figure out what to do with them”, but a more collaborative engagement with greater interaction and intensity of participation amongst organizations and stakeholders. Going from idea generation, selection to incubation and production.

No matter if we want to create a new product or a product vision, a marketing strategy, design new processes or services, restructure an organization… co-creation is the state of the art model for innovation, collaborative creativity and leads to the core of: “None of us is as smart as all of us”! Recently Prof. dr. ir. Marion debruyne did a very interesting talk about co-creation at the Vlerick Management School, you can check out the presentation on Slideshare: Vlerick innovation network slideshare from marbru

This process is exactly what Co-Learning stands for, and that’s why we’ve invited a StrategicPlay® facilitator for an awesome IBO session: Thorsten O. Kalnin will lead you through the secrets of Co-Creation and true innovation with a tool designed to enhance creative collaboration! StrategicPlay® is based on the method and materials of LEGO® SeriousPlayTM. You want to extend your understanding of Co-Creation and experience how to use bricks and collaborative play as a means/tool in generating powerful ideas you did not think to use before? Don’t hesitate to get a last minute ticket for the session on 22 September!