In 1971, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the forerunner of the modern internet, had about 1,000 users. the @sign an obscure symbol. Then, engineer Ray Tomlinson changed all that by creating a system for sending messages to other computers on the ARPANET network, using the @ sign to indicate who each message was for. Email was born.

One of the greatest inventions of the digital age was not created by a company looking for a product to sell. It was baked by a user who had a problem to solve. Tomlinson SAYS he didn’t even fully realize how big his invention was until almost 25 years later, in 1993.

Users are also behind the invention of dishwasher (a socialist looking to make cleaning up dinner easier), the phone (an engineer who wants to talk to his wife upstairs from his basement lab), the plastic contact lenses (an optometrist tired of wearing thick heavy glasses) and even modern tech companies like Airbnb (the founders rent an air mattress in their living room to help pay their San Francisco apartment rent).

Users are a key source of disruptive innovation, yet they are often overlooked. We recently published an analysis of 60 cases of disruptive innovation in Journal of Product Innovation Managementfrom LASIK surgery to power tools. Our goal is to understand where disruptive innovation comes from. We were surprised to see that almost half of the innovations we discovered came from users, rather than producers.

Combining ‘need knowledge’ and ‘solution knowledge’

Users have a unique, up-close view of a problem – and know where current solutions fall short. Technical experts and existing producers have a clearer understanding of what potential solutions look like, but they are not as close to demand. By combining users’ “need knowledge,” with their own “solution knowledge,” companies can open up many opportunities for growth and competitive advantage.

Disturbing ideas for B2C products and services often originate from individual consumers looking to meet their own needs. Disruptive innovation in the B2B space can come from professionals looking for new tools or systems to do their jobs more effectively. For example, physician John H. Gibbon and his wife Mary developed the heart-lung machine and used it to perform one of the first successful open-heart surgeries.

Our study found that products that offer more innovative features are more likely to be developed by users and often emerge in times of rapidly changing customer needs. On the other hand, innovations with high technological innovation are more likely to be created by producers, who have the necessary technical skills. This tends to arise from moments of rapid technological change.

Our research questions existing thinking disruptive innovation. The narrative back from entrepreneur Clayton Christensen is that disruption comes from startups and other new players in a market, while large incumbents often lag behind. Users are seen as part of the problem. If your customers are always asking for the same thing, there isn’t much room to change.

But our research shows that there’s not just a template for disruptive innovation, and users can be a source of great ideas rather than an obstacle. While companies often look to users for input on how to tweak existing projects and innovate around margins, we’ve found they can also create disruptive, transformative in the game.

Tips for supporting disruptive innovation

So, how can your company demonstrate truly disruptive innovation from users? First, create a culture of open innovation that values ​​insights from outside the organization. While the technical geniuses in your R&D department are experts on how to build something new, they are not the only authorities on what you need to build. Our research suggests that it is especially important to look for user-generated disruption in times of rapidly changing customer needs.

Talk to your customers and create channels for dialogue and engagement. Most companies regularly survey users and conduct focus groups. But to discover truly disruptive ideas, you need to go beyond reactions to existing products and unmet needs and pain points. Customer complaints also offer insight into how existing solutions fail. AI tools make it easier to monitor online user communities and analyze feedback, reviews, and customer complaints.

Keep your pulse on social media and online user communities where people share new ways to adapt existing products and wish lists for new uses. Users also gather offline. At sporting events you may find athletes DIYing custom solutions to unmet needs. Mountain bikes were invented in the 1970s by riders who cobbled together custom bikes, called clunkers, to explore the beautiful off-road landscapes of California.

Focus on top users who are ahead of trends. The leading users are usually the first to see the increase in consumer needs that will become dominant in the future, and they will benefit from new solutions. Research shows that top user ideas are more commercially valuable than those from the average customer. However, take their input with a grain of salt, as top users sometimes value niche tools that customers don’t care about. You can also look for lead users who are embedded within your organization – for example, employees who work at a car company because they are car enthusiasts.

Finally, explore co-creation initiatives that promote direct collaboration with user innovators. For example, run a contest where customers submit ideas for new products or features, some of which can be truly disruptive. Or sponsor hackathons that bring together users with needs and technical experts to design solutions.

Companies are always looking for an innovative content, but they often miss one of the most powerful sources of groundbreaking ideas – their own users. By tapping into the vast pool of existing users and customers, you can leverage their creativity and expertise to drive truly disruptive innovation.

Christina Raasch is Professor of the digital economy at Kuhne LOgistics University in Germany. Tim Schweisfurth is Professor of organizational design and collaboration engineering at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany.