Title: Bringing agile project management into lead user projects

Authors: Jens Lehnen; Tobias Sebastian Schmidt; Cornelius Herstatt

Addresses: Hamburg University of Technology, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, Am Schwarzenberg-Campus 4, 21073 Hamburg, Germany ' Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich, Institute of Innovation and Technology Management, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85577 München, Germany ' Hamburg University of Technology, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, Am Schwarzenberg-Campus 4, 21073 Hamburg, Germany

Abstract: The lead user method symbolises a technique of integrating advanced users into the New Product Development (NPD) to cope with firm's increasing necessity of successfully innovating. Implementing this method, companies often face challenges typically linked to barriers in project management. We analyse these drawbacks conducting an exploratory study among 249 companies in the German-speaking countries. To strengthen our results, we conduct six in-depth interviews to collect best practices in project management-related aspects. The outcome is a model based on agile project management and the stage-gate process that compensates identified weaknesses and provides an efficient, flexible implementation of lead users into practice.

Keywords: innovation management; new product development; NPD; user innovation; lead users; agile project management; stage-gate process; scrum; best practice.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPD.2016.078867

International Journal of Product Development, 2016 Vol.21 No.2/3, pp.212 - 232

Published online: 03 Sep 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article