In the previous post on collaboration, we discussed the importance of the guest list. And we mentioned that we include third-party consumer research experts and their findings in our collaborative innovation process. Here’s why.

Our customers know everything about their product. We know everything about packaging. Working with a third-party consumer research firm provides us with an unbiased deep dive into the world of the end user.

We work with our research partner to decide what we want to learn more about and whom to talk to. If it’s food packaging, for example, we may decide to talk to chefs, cafeteria workers, store managers or moms. If it’s a pet product, we might talk with pet owners, pet store managers or veterinarians. Depending on the insights we need, we can draw from focus groups, surveys, one-on-one interviews, in-field intercepts and more. And when an intriguing insight emerges, our nimble process enables us to pursue it further.

Investing in research up front allows us to enter the collaborative innovation process with powerful insights that our customers may not have. For example, consumer research uncovered that consumers rely less on claims about freshness of a product and more on the packaging experience to validate their expectations of freshness. We also learned that packaging plays a key role in managing convenience as snack consumers look for reusable containers that give them ultimate flexibility.

Including research experts in our Design-Led Innovation Workshop and Design Sprint process ensures that we never lose sight of the end-user or other key groups. Our research experts interject fresh ideas and help avoid group-think with a perspective that lives outside the world of Ring and our customers.

Deciding exactly what to research is critical, and it requires defining the challenge first. That’s the topic of our next blog.

If this blog series inspires you to collaborate on new packaging, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us at ringcontainer.com/contact-us.