Vision formulation and
problem solving for innovation
Research and development vision development:
Think of the future of homes and living from the point of people
LIXIL
Extreme User Interview
Get suggestions for the future society
from "extreme users"
Extreme user interviews are interviews with consumers who have average/uncommon attributes and behavioral characteristics, and values. In many cases, it is implemented for deepening the understanding of leading social events and trends, and signs of change.
In this project, the extreme user interview was implemented for deepening the understanding of future lifestyle and changes in trend of living. For example, by making full use of its own network which i.lab built by gathering interviews with extreme users over the years, i.lab has conducted interviews with various people such as “an amateur designer who designed and built a house”, “a super Airbnb host” and a “homeless person who has money”.
Opportunity Area
Found by anticipating the needs of the future
After insight into the future society is made, from a long-term viewpoint, explorations of business opportunity fields were made where LIXIL products, service, and businesses can be developed.
In i.lab, we call the areas of promising business opportunities as "opportunity areas". When considering an opportunity area, not only were they discussed with i.lab members and LIXIL employees, but external designers, creators, as well as university professors also joined, deepening multi-layered discussions with various perspectives. A good opportunity area, for example, is when a new need is likely to be triggered by social changes, or new values which are born from advanced technology, things that would make one feel that there is a possibility of ideas being born.
By trying to draw the social scene of the people in the opportunity area, LIXIL debated on what kind of products, services and business ideas there were for the future and what kind of research should be emphasized to make that a reality.
In this way, by applying human-centric thinking when thinking about future science technology, one can anticipate research and development vision and strategy that considers the needs that will exist in the future.
* Since there are many confidential matters in the project content,
there are some contents that are different from the actual details.
Social Shift
To gain insight into the impact on the business of
"social shift" (=qualitative changes in society)
To gain insight into future lifestyles and living conditions, it is necessary not only to deepen the microscopic understanding of the changes in people, but also vital to research and analysis for social changes from a macro point of view.
In this project, even though they are social events outside the business areas of LIXIL, we have gained insight into the social changes that would greatly affect the future. For example, we have extracted "development and dissemination of automatic operation vehicles", "rise of sharing economy”, "things connecting to the Internet (=IoT)” and such for discussion.