How can top skiers be of value for organizations?

A

amsterdamned

Member
This is the focus of my master thesis, and I would really appreciate your help.

Basically, my research challenges current theory about lead users (those who are ahead of an important market trend), who supposedly could mainly just be used for product development. My research looks into the freeskiing market, who is thought to be far ahead of theory in respect to user activities in organizations. Help me get an overview on the value and activities of user knowledge. Imagine if user knowledge is as valuable as theoretical knowledge. Imagine how much organizations will appreciate you skiing as much as you can. Skiing would become your homework!

For the people who have an affiliation with a skiing related company, would you please fill in my questionnaire?

http://http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xrkPYYTrVpdIsXTi42SJLg_3d_3d

There are some questions, but most can just be checked on or off.

Oh, and please discuss any thoughts about user value in organizations if you wish.

 
"Imagine if user knowledge is as valuable as theoretical knowledge. " User knowledge is concrete, theoretical knowledge is not. The previous statement is backwards unless by user you mean "civilians" and by theoretical you mean "pros" in the freeskiing movement. If that is the case I would say the knowledge is 70% professionalism vs 30% consumer market research. Pros out weigh the others due to the stresses they put into the testing of the product. Consumers or "civilians" just respond. Which will bring you into what defines a pro vs civilian and the cycle will continue on and on and on untill you formulate your own thesis and stop asking newschoolers for help. In this case, you are the pro, and we are the civilians.
 
^i think u misunderstood the question. 'User knowledge' i think refers to the pros, the ams, the shredders, the people using the product loads /using the shape of the jump and the resort as a whole. 'Theoretical knowledge' refers to the ski engineer or designer/ the parkshaper/resort manager / the clothes designer/ the marketing guy/ the people that decide where to sell the product - online (like coreUPT)vs traditional ski shops vs core ski shops etc. obviously there is some overlap - the people designing that shit are also useing the product.

But the thesis (i think) is saying, lets look at the lead-users, ie the trend setters/the pros. can these lead-users be used in the organisation for more than merely product development? When applied to skiing, the answer is YES, they can be used for marketing purposes (not only hey look, we sponsor this pro, but as marketing consultants - like ask him 'how can we best market our brand or product to the kids'), and their experties can be used in all other aspects of the organisation (look at all that mikedouglas does for salomon for example). Skiing stand out in this respect. Im guessing, this is why this guy is using the ski industry as a model/case study for his thesis.

Do you agree that 'our knowledge' (the user-knowledge) is as usefull/valuable as the knowledge of the guys doing the jobs?

Like if 'u' are a pro / am skier for fischer, do you think u could tell Fischer skis how to best market their skis to the public? Could ur experties be used in any other aspects of the business appart from product development? what other advice could u give fischer as a 'lead-user'? Do you think this would be helpfull / usefull to fischer, could they benefit from your knowlede / your experties, as u are a lead-user (a pro/am - someone that skis alot more than the majority of consumers)? Is being a lead-user just as / more valuable than a guy that skis a bit and has a degree?

Could other industries benefit from doing what skiing has done, ie use lead-users in many aspects of the organisation with much success?

idk, that what i made of the topic of the thesis, it might but way off though, amsterdamed? any of what i said make sence?
 
rudeboy, dude, you hit the nail on the head man. spot on.

I was still actually trying tofigure out how civilians came into the picture.

 
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