Should Innovators or Designers expect or hope Users to provide Solution Ideas?

Here’s a nice post by Nikki Anderson for anyone who’s debated whether innovators and designers should ask users for innovative solutions to their challenges, or if crafting the solution is solely the innovator or designer’s job.

My short answer: A bit of both.

In my experience, and as I have mentioned in my book ‘Design the Future’, when you ask users for solution ideas, you’ll almost always get suggestions on how what’s already there can be improved. An improvement idea.
Obviously nothing wrong with that. They have value, as companies often rely on regular product improvements for many years before launching their next breakthrough.

And for users, existing products or processes are merely means to an end. They rarely spend time re-imagining its capabilities or the experience.

However, I have found that breakthrough innovations will invariably always trace their roots back to user inputs.

My favourite experience and example: collaborating with the pediatric oncology department at a leading Asian hospital. The hospital had already gone all out to make treatments free or affordable, and had built and maintained a well-oiled support ecosystem for children and their parent(s). Despite this, it was heartening to see doctors keen and receptive to affordable ways to further improve patient experience.

Initially, my asking stakeholders for direct improvement ideas, or thinking logically for solutions didn’t lead to anything. 

So, relying on my design thinking training, I returned to the different stakeholder groups for another round of interactions. This time not seeking solutions, but focusing on their lives: their fears, challenges, feelings, and their journey.

That’s when important but invisible challenges popped up. And truly innovative ideas emerged. Straight from their stories. From users. 
A really transformative lesson for me.

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