To create new offerings that serve unmet or unspoken needs, it is best to actually know what those needs are. To do that requires research into future consumer behavior – which, of course, can’t be measured. But what can be explored is what motivates future behavior. To gain this type of knowledge, it is necessary to engage the community of both current and potential customers.

Community Research and Development (Community R&D) is a knowledge discovery process for understanding how people think and choose. Community R&D uses a method called engagements (in-depth discussions driving at the reasoning behind choice and decision) with a relatively few key individuals to gain an understanding of the different types of potential future customers. Customers don’t all think alike, yet they influence each other, and collectively their behavior determines adoption rates. The critical aspect of Community R&D is discovering those whose involvement will bring the greatest understanding. In the language of Community R&D, this work is called Community Building – creating a knowledge community of individuals who have the knowledge, both tacit and explicit, that you need to know.

For more information on Knowledge Communities and their creation see Community Building Tools.