Living labs: bridging marketing and research

Taking the leap from `good idea´ to `successful product´ is easy in theory. In practice, however, developing and bringing a product, service or application to market costs a lot of time and money.

Through various institutions and funds, the government subsidizes the research of innovative ideas and the development of prototypes. Once a product is "market-ready", businesses take over and fund large-scale production. But what institution bridges the gap between the prototype and the ready-made product? Not many companies and research institutions are willing to finance that risk because, in that phase, the probability of failure is greatest.

Living Labs: ideal test environment

Living Labs were set up to prevent new products from being insufficiently tested and brought to the market too soon. Living Labs are a playground for testers who lack adequate test facilities and instruments. It´s where companies can test innovative technologies, products and services with a representative user group in a controlled environment. It´s the ideal setting to examine the feasibility of ideas, products and services in an early stage and, when necessary, correct them.

The activities of Living Labs span three phases: need finding, shaping and business modelling. During the initial phase, researchers define a need and build a concept to fulfill it. In the second, shaping, the concept is transformed into a prototype. In phase three, that prototype is configured into a viable business model. During all phases, the new product, service or application can be examined by a select test audience. And because testing is continuous throughout all phases, differences and irregularities can be identified early on.

The role of iLab.o

IBBT´s iLab.o is the maverick of Living Labs because it was developed to assist major testing initiatives. iLab.o not only offers methodologies and tools, but also helps other Living Labs in their strategy development and management. Furthermore, iLab.o collects user data and aids the selection and recruitment of the test audience.  iLab.o is a part of the greater iLab initiative, which also comprises iLab.t  (evaluating technical feasibility) and iLab.u (enhancing user friendliness)  to evaluate and optimise innovations.

iLab.o recently proved its value in a project for E-papers. Feedback from the test audience demonstrated, among other things, that the screen reflection was irritating and the connection with the server was not stable enough. As a result, the prototype was sent back to the Living Lab for adjustments.

iLab.o also contributed greatly to the research for mobile television. At concept launch, it was assumed that the application would be used mainly in bars and among friends. A user test, however, showed that the mobile television was most often used as an application to kill time, for example on the bus or during a meal alone. The test demonstrated that the market potential was much lower originally estimated and that the concept had no future.

In both cases, iLab.o was able to provide valuable insights into the project at the right time, and a failed launch was prevented from occurring. These examples illustrate how important it is to be able to test the product on a representative user audience in each phase of development. Doing so saves cost, time and disappointment.