Thanks Jeff - it's great to join the Resonate team and I look forward to helping evolve our unique customer engagement and innovation offering. There's been quite a bit of activity in the co-creation world with recent news that NikeID's platform generated over $100m (USD) in revenue for the 2009 financial year. Since 2007 Nike customers have been able to use a web-based toolkit to customise shoes which are then built-to-order before being manufactured and shipped. In this article on the subject Danny Wong suggests that customer co-creation has become more than just a trend because of i) greater alignment between consumer demand and retailer supply; ii) DIY co-creation toolkits have become highly useable and enable rich product visualisation; iii) the flexibility of the web allows business to better iterate; and iv) co-creation resolves the inefficiencies of mass production. 

On the research front Forrester just published a new report on "Social Co-Creation" that outlines how social technologies are being applied to Consumer Product Strategy to help customers co-create new products and improve existing ones. The report's author Doug Williams defines co-creation as "the act of involving consumers directly, and in some cases repeatedly, in the product creation or innovation process." Using Forrester's social technologies terminology Williams states that "through a combination of listening and embracing, companies can understand what unmet needs exist in the market today, recognise where current products are coming up short, tap the wisdom of the crowd to test ideas, ad develop relationships with engaged consumers to drive new concepts into the market." 

Image courtesy of Doug Williams Forrester Research

Many organisations are starting to realise the importance of leveraging customer knowledge and ideas for a range of co-creation activities. Yet the plethora of services available via the Social Web (Facebook and Twitter to name a few) presents marketing and product strategy teams with an often confusing overabundance of tools which aren't necessarily matched to an appropriate customer engagement strategy. 

Here at Resonate we see significant value in branded online communities established for insight (listening) and innovation (embracing). Co-creation usually involves building relationships with "lead users" that can become a company resource over time when given the right incentives and opportunities to participate. Branded communities create the right environment for these innovative customers to express their creativity and add value to marketing, product development and a range of other functions that up until recently were seen as the exclusive domain of internal subject matter experts.

So how do you co-create with customers and other stakeholders? Share your stories here or let us know of case studies that inspire you.