The ability to innovate is what keeps your organization at the top of its field. The faster and better you innovate, the more likely you are to remain in the lead and to set the new rules that others will have to follow. But the innovation game is changing dramatically. You no longer win by hiring the smartest engineers and scientists—you win by engaging the smartest customers.
The author argues that the only way organizations can break out of the pack is to open up their entire business to passionate customers and welcome them into every aspect of product and service design. In fact, those companies that bring customers into the innovation process—the ones that innovate from the outside in—will create products that better meet the needs of prospective customers, revolutionize business models and practices, and build fanatically loyal customers.
Drawing from dozens of fascinating stories of outside innovation pioneers such as LEGO, Staples, Hallmark, Kraft, and others, author shows how to win the innovation wars by:

* Finding lead users in your industry and commercializing their inventions.
* Engaging with your most visionary customers toco-design new products and new processes.
* Enabling customers to troubleshoot each others’ problems, hack your solutions, and modify and extend your products to meet their needs.
* Providing toolkits for your customers to design very specific solutions for themselves—customized solutions that leverage your firm’s deep domain expertise.