Copyright - Mairi Robertson, New Media Partners, 2010

1. champions of change
Technology Ventures
Dr Mairi Robertson
New Media Partners
8th July 2010

2. new media partners
if you don’t move forward, you’re standing still, or worse
• We operate on the cutting edge of technology content provision, bringing
business people, technologists and creative people together; bringing
clarity, honesty and focus to the table
– Our research and consulting arm is the knowledge hub around which the rest
of the business revolves
– Our bespoke skills development and mentoring programme, nmp Accelerate,
is designed to help high growth digital media businesses achieve their
commercial potential
– We help create highly distinctive Media Cities providing a physical focus for
digital media and technology industry activities in the development and
regeneration of cities

3. Market led R&D
Developing novel ideas
Gathering market input

4. Market led R&D
Developing novel ideas
Gathering market input

5. One approach – ITI Scotland
Remit:
To drive sustainable company growth in Scotland through
ownership of commercially targeted R&D programmes that deliver
world-class intellectual assets
• ITI Scotland was launched by the Scottish Executive in
September 2003
– £450 million of funding across 3 ITIs (Intermediary Technology
Institutes)
– market-driven R&D centre
– acts as a catalyst to create world class technology in the digital
media and communications sectors
– anticipates future market opportunities in a 3-10 year horizon
– builds on Scotland's company and research strengths
– identifies, commissions and diffuses pre-competitive research
– generates and manages intellectual assets to maximise commercial
and economic value for Scotland

6. ITI model

7. An R & D programme example:
Games based learning
• Initial idea emerged from foresighting activity
– growth in interactive teaching methods
– good skills base in Scotland (strength in Gaming & education)
– lack of tools dedicated to this market
• Market scoping
– in 2005, the Games Based Learning market was estimated to be
worth $20m in Europe
• expected to rise over the next ten years to approximately $125m
– the serious games movement is growing in strength and numbers
and the market is poised to embrace this revolutionary new
approach, if it can solve its biggest problem
– “how to create games-based learning content quickly and easily
without the need for specialist programmers”

8. Requirements were gathered in the programme development phase
• Requirements gathering
– extensive market research – detailed interviews with end users
• Identified a need for an authoring platform that met the following list
of requirements:
– allows trainers to create their own games-based learning content quickly
and easily
– incorporates best practice from successful e-learning and video game
applications
– is compatible with existing systems and IT infrastructure within the target
markets
– is suitable for use by learning facilitators, so that they can adapt and
customize games content to deliver particular learning objectives
• These requirements informed the R&D programme that was
undertaken
– ongoing market engagement tested new ideas coming out of the R&D –
focus spend on most desirable concepts

9. Importance of ongoing market validation – you’re trying to hit a moving target!
• The World Wide Web did not exist until 1992
• Internet 2 – the next generation web – has been under development
since 1992 but is not yet open to the public
• It was not possible ‘to Google’ before 1998
• The first version of MySpace was launched in 2003
• The term Web 2.0 only became notable in 2004
• Flickr launched in 2004
• You Tube was created in 2005
• Facebook went live in 2006
• Twitter arrived in 2006
• The first internet-connected multimedia smartphone was made available
to the public in 2007
• HD television was only introduced to the US as the operating standard in
June 2009
• 3D TV is here
• Super HD is already developed and on the shelf!

10. Market led R&D
Developing novel ideas
Gathering market input

11. Closed vs Open innovation
Research Development
New
Market
Market
CLOSED INNOVATION
OPEN

12. Moving to open innovation requires a change of mindset
Closed innovation principles Open innovation principles
Not all the smart people in the field work for
The smart people in the field work for us.
us. We need to work with smart people inside
and outside the company.
External R&D can create significant value:
To profit from R&D, we must discover it,
internal R&D is needed to claim some portion
develop it, and ship it ourselves.
of that value
If we discover it ourselves, we will get it to the We don't have to originate the research to
market first profit from it.
The company that gets an innovation to the Building a better business model is better
market first will win than getting to the market first
.
If we create the most and the best ideas in If we make the best use of internal and
the industry, we will win. external ideas, we will win.
We should profit from others' use of our IP,
We should control our IP so that our
,
and we should buy others' IP whenever it
competitors don't profit from our ideas.
advances our business model.
Source: Chesbrough, H. (2003), "Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology", Harvard Business School Press.

13. Pervasive Media Studio
• The Pervasive Media Studio
– formal partnership with UWE's Digital Cultures
Research Centre and support from HP Labs
and the South West Regional Development
Agency
• Multi-disciplinary lab exploring and
producing pervasive media content,
applications and services.
• Projects
– some are commercial, some are cultural.
– test projects as early as possible and iterate

14. Market led R&D
Developing novel ideas
Gathering market input

15. Use the right techniques
Secondary
Brainstorming Focus Group
research
Survey Workshop Interview
Use cases Observation Prototyping

16. Ask the right questions
• I’m developing a new oven • What issues do you have
– Do you want it be gas or cooking food?
electric? – “It takes too long – I want to
– Does it need a separate cook food in 5 mins rather
grill? than an hour”
– Etc …
• Answer • Answer
– A slightly improved oven – Microwave
Issues: What are the end user’s unmet needs when doing a
task?
Demand: How important are they?
Differentiator: How close do your/competitor’s products get
to meeting the unmet needs?

17. Understand your customers, market position & how competitors fit
High performance
Low cost High cost
Low performance

18. And remember innovation is not just about the technology … commercialisation and
business model must be considered from the beginning of the R&D programme
10 types of innovation (Source http://www.doblin.com/)