The first step in the innovation
process is for the marketer to generate intuition about consumers'
needs and market opportunities. This intuition comes from sharing
experience with consumers. The variety and number of ways to share
experience with consumers is innumerable. So, this first step is
often the most difficult for an organization to perform reliably.
An important source of inspiration for
intuition into consumers' needs is lead users. Lead users have a high
level of knowledge about brands and products, and lead users
understand their own needs very well. So, creative lead users are
able to invent a solution to their needs on their own by customizing
a product or re-combining a product with some other products.