Several of our speakers today have emphasized the importance of gaining understanding of customer needs and how people interact. An example given was a designer for IDEO who was creating new furniture and storage for children. The designer spent a lot of time with children, on the floor and in their space, getting an understanding of their perspective. Rather than create a new bookcase, he created a product that hangs under shelves or tables and allows children to store their toys and stuff in a completely different way than was expected - but made sense for the consumer - the children.

So often, new ideas and products and services are there for us to see and implement, if we'll identify the experiences, patterns and themes in our lives. Another example given was the credit card that sets up a savings account. Firms noticed that many consumers would round up when they paid their bills. Why not create a method to help people save money while using their credit card while they do something they would do anyway?

Increasingly, innovators are spending time living, working and experiencing life as customers do, rather than use dry research and marketing reports to attempt to determine the next innovation. Who in your organization is living with the customer and learning about the trends, patterns and experiences they have?

There's clearly an opening in many firms for people who understand how to interact with customers, who can act as an anthropologist or an ethnographer to understand why people do what they do, and the new solutions they are creating on their own.