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I am a small business Conversation Consultant and public speaker that uses the power of the internet to leverage your success. Productivity in Context is a web magazine focused on Productivity and tools for organizing. Make this your headquarters for improving your life and work through increased mindfulness, education, and workflow practices.

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I was recently contacted for a brief interview on collaboration and co-creation by Insight Magazine, and my friend Ryan Rasmussen and I were quoted in the magazine. You can see it online here, or find it on newsstands.

The magazine article was inspired by discussions that Ryan had with the D*I*Y*Planner community. When I got to meet Ryan face-to-face at SOBCon in Chicago this past May, I asked him about those discussions and how they led to a new product being offered by the company that he worked for. Then he showed me the prototype of the “Circa PDA” (or cPDA) that he developed with the productivity/planner community:

Ryan goes on to offer some advice for companies that are interested in getting involved with existing communities:

Thanks Ryan! If you are interested in seeing pics of some of these iterations and early prototypes, you can check out Ryan’s flickrset here.

Now here is an excerpt from the article, I’d love to hear your thoughts:

Co-creation Theory - INSIGHT Article - Jul. 2008

In the last three years, this interaction has become even more intimate. Consumers are wielding greater influence earlier on in the product development process, and are now contributing their ideas even before a product hits the market.

Levenger, a manufacturer and retailer of productivity tools, often turns to its consumers for new ideas. The company originally hired Ryan Rasmussen as a salesperson with a desire to experiment online as an extension of his duties. The process of engagement and collaboration within online communities, however, developed into an entirely new position for Levenger, that of an Emerging Media Specialist.

With activities that blur the silos of online marketing, customer service and public relations, Rasmussen’s interactions now hinge on seeding community brainstorms and prototyping new product ideas with online collaborators in forums, blogs and persistent virtual environments like Second Life.

“A lot of our online customers are eager to share their opinions, not just on new products, but also on how to improve existing products,” says Rasmussen. “Participation in these conversations provides customers with a genuine connection to a brand they care about, and a voice in the direction that brand takes.”

Levenger’s Circa PDA, for example, was the brainchild of an online community. The idea was to create a mini-notebook for on-the-go note-taking. After gathering input from users of a popular online productivity forum, D*I*Y Planner, Rasmussen created a prototype. “It’s a process of hacking and cracking,” says Rasmussen. “I fast-prototype with the same kind of tools that the community would use—an Exacto knife, a Dremel tool–—and I take (existing) products apart and try to do different things with them.”

After creating the prototype, Rasmussen took a picture and posted it online to generate even more input. The Circa PDA is now one of Levenger’s standard product offerings. “A lot of these communities really offer the best new ideas for products,” Rasmussen explains. “Engaging this talent requires nothing more than a willingness to participate and recognize each community member’s value through open conversation.”

You can read the entire article here - Co-Creation Theory.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/6pl6ow. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen