Importance of the social web in social product development
We all know the social web has a tremendous impact on product development and has promoted increased collaboration and social engagement within organizations of every size, in every industry. The increase in availability of multiple social channels has put customers in the driver’s seat and dramatically changed their role from a passive to an active member of the product development decision making process.
The social web has positioned customer engagement as a core element of the strategic focus of leading consumer brands. For example, Skittles allows the consumer to 
customize and personalize their own candies, and Nivea considers customers to be co-creative designers of new skin care products. Although customer involvement has a strong tradition in the development of consumer products, organizations are still reluctant to adopt a social product development strategy.
Critical factors influencing the adoption of a social product development strategy
“While there are a handful of companies out there that have been leveraging social technologies to influence product strategy, the data indicates that for many product strategy professionals, it is still early days — they don’t yet know how to leverage those technologies in their job.” -Doug Williams, Forrester Analyst
In the recent report “Product Strategists Want Social Innovation”, Forrester Analyst Doug Williams, suggests that while product management professionals strongly advocate and recognize the value of utilizing new technologies to enrich current product development strategy, organizations are slow to adopt this new innovative concept.
Social product strategy: Critical factors
Williams discovered through research several reasons that explain why some organizations are not making this “shift”:
- They do not have the right tools (resources) to leverage insight and information
- They have difficulty implementing these tools to affect real change
- Employees don’t know how to leverage these technologies in their job
Increasing the presence of social product development through education
What do these finding mean for organizations and social technology vendors? What can be done to help bridge this gap and get everyone on the same page? One solution is to increase education. This is a relatively new area of focus; and if we have learned anything from product launches and product marketing we know that in the early stages education is the key to getting people to adopt something. If organizations and product professionals want to ‘’turn-on” companies to the use of social media technologies they need to provide the proper education and increase the knowledge base of stakeholders, so that the tools and technologies can be used to their full potential.
OneDesk facilitates the social product development process
OneDesk’s social business software applications are created to provide solutions for unique business problems. The applications are designed to help connect social product development strategy to the needs of the marketplace, and align marketing efforts with organizational goals and strategies. Whether your organization is newly exploring product innovation or is already reaping the benefits, can help ensure you deliver the right product to market faster and more efficiently.
Join the conversation: What do you believe can help organizations incorporate new technologies into their social product development strategies?