Nella, 15, telling how it works

Record numbers attended the latest Business lounge at Malmö Incubator, Minc. The main attraction - a teenager that talked about how she uses her mobile phone.

User-driven innovation was the topic of the evening and Micael Gustafsson, CEO at ØresundIT was invited to talk about involving the users in the innovation process.

- Most often we don’t need elaborate theories. This is not rocket science, it’s simply communication, says Micael Gustafsson.

Much of his experience was gained through the project Living Labs Øresund. A project where different methods of user-driven innovation were tested working with mobile telephone services.

The next, and maybe the most awaited part of the seminar was the interview with 15-year old Nella who was talking about mobile phones, internet and music. She sends over 3000 text messages per month but thinks MMS is not that interesting or useful. A life without a cell phone is unthinkable for Nella. When her phone broke down it didn’t take long before she got a new one.

- For me the cell phone is more important than the computer, she says.

After the interview Nella was bombarded with questions from the audience concerning everything from advertisement to dating – IRL or facebook.

Most of the people in the audience have experienced a time without a mobile phone or internet which isn’t the case of today’s teenagers. This gives them a way of seeing life that might be hard for today’s entrepreneurs to grasp. To involve this group in the innovation process can therefore be crucial in the innovation process.