Comments on: Mass Customization feature in Business Week

By: Chris Norman

Chris Norman — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:39:40 +0000

I’ve been pitching the idea of mass customization to venture capitalists for two years and none of them has taken the bait. I am amazed that everyone here knows that softwae is the future of making mass customization work. You need tools to do it. Tools that don’t exist yet. Anybody want to tell me what VC firm is really into mass customization? email me at chris-norman@austin.rr.com

By: Derek Elley

Derek Elley — Sun, 13 May 2007 10:01:28 +0000

Hey

Yes I read that last year – excellent! I esplly liked the full diagram you drew. In true ‘Internet time’ there are now a few extras to add to it – but as you say mass individualization is where it’s at and using smart tools to enable ‘everyone’ to participate in product creation from the ground up is inspiring.

By: Donal Reddington

Donal Reddington — Tue, 08 May 2007 22:44:34 +0000

Yes, it is! A few projects are currently underway that have moved the customization process back through to the early stages of the product lifecycle. These have caught the current wave of enthusiasm for ‘Crowdsourcing’, although they are more correctly defined as co-creation. Labelling them as crowdsourcing seems to generate more interest among the media and also among potential participants.

If you haven’t done so already, a read of the post ‘One Word for Many Trends’ from November 2006 might be of interest – it sets out how I expect the co-creation / outside innovation trend to develop.

By: Derek Elley

Derek Elley — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:10:32 +0000

I agree, plenty of ingenuity is required. I guess this is why Zazzle has moved from basic “mass personalization” to “mass customization” with its recent purchase.

But I wonder what is after this – what about “mass individualization”. The ingenuity required to enable this is another step altogether. Instead of sticking a picture of your dog to an existing product like a mug (Zazzle personalization) or choosing options to build up an existing product like a pc (Dell customization) – what about co-creation happening at the product design file level? THIS is a bit more of a challenge.