UX-FFE Model : An Experimentation of a new innovation process dedicated to a mature industrial company

Abstract

Most of mature companies, operating through a certain form of repeat business in producing incremental innovations, have lost their ability to conduct radical or breakthrough innovations. While this is not necessarily a bad strategy for short-term sustainability, this is more questionable for future growth and long-term sustainability. Hence, we present in this paper a new innovation model, named UX-FFE because it combines both User eXperience and Fuzzy Front-End approaches. It is intended to tackle economical and social challenges of a successful innovation process. Beyond the systemic processes, like the FFE, addressing the economic stake of a company, our model includes an UX-based process in order to address also the social stake. Then, we explain how this new innovation model was concretely implemented, through the use of several techniques and tools, within a mature industrial company. Finally, we unveil the results of this innovation process experiment for evaluating its potential to overcome both economical and social challenges.