Observing and representing uses

You've started to structure an innovation project from an initial idea. Knowing the users, or more broadly the beneficiaries of the product or service you wish to develop, is absolutely essential. Yet few project leaders today really take the time to observe.

This fact sheet will help you understand the importance of observation, but also of representing usage by defining a protocol in line with your objectives. You will then be in a position to analyze the results and choose an appropriate mode of representation to formalize and capitalize on your experience, but above all to bring to light the problems and pains of users, and thus convince decision-makers of the soundness of your reasoning.

Observing and representing usage is the third deliverable in the Radical Innovation Design ® (RID) methodology, described in detail in a series of practical sheets. After structuring the project and defining the ideal need, this deliverable enables us to really get to grips with the uses, problems and pains of users or beneficiaries, linked to existing products and practices. It enables us to initiate an in-depth analysis of uses and problems, in order to uncover pockets of value - significant combinations of a problem and a use that are not, or only inadequately, covered by existing solutions.