Creating breakthroughs at 3M

Most senior managers want their product development teams to create breakth roughs - new products that will allow their companies to grow rapidly and m aintain high margins. But more often they get incremental improvements to e xisting products. That's partly because companies must compete in the short term. Searching f or breakthroughs is expensive and time consuming; line extensions can help the bottom line immediately. In addition, developers simply don't know how to achieve breakthroughs, and there is usually no system in place to guide them. By the mid-1990s, the lack of such a system was a problem even for an innov ative company like 3M. Then a project team in 3M's Medical-Surgical Markets Division became acquainted with a method for developing breakthrough produ cts: the lead user process. The process is based on the fact that many commercially important products are initially thought of and even prototyped by "lead users"-companies, org anizations, or individuals that are well ahead of market trends. Their need s are so far beyond those of the average user that lead users create innova tions on their own that may later contribute to commercially attractive bre akthroughs. The lead user process transforms the job of inventing breakthro ughs into a systematic task of identifying lead users and learning from the m. The authors explain the process and how the 3M project team successfully na vigated through it. in the end, the team proposed three major new product l ines and a change in the division's strategy that has led to the developmen t of breakthrough products. And now several more divisions are using the pr ocess to break away from incrementalism.