How unexpected experts helped global companies innovate
In a new study, Roberto Verganti, Professor at the House of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics, examines how new perspectives can help large companies expand their innovation space. The findings offer practical insight into how organizations can move beyond incremental improvements and rethink the meaning of what they create.
Across four global projects spanning pet care, hair care, Japanese skin care, and professional photography, Verganti followed how “outsiders” helped companies redefine their problems and, in turn, develop new and innovative solutions.
The goal was not to brainstorm specific features or provide technical answers, but to introduce new ways of thinking. Participants included unexpected experts: a hotel manager, a pet sitter, a youth culture researcher, a postproduction expert, and a designer of digital characters, among others.
They were encouraged to voice their opinions openly and collaboratively, even provocatively. This broadened discussions and took them in surprising directions.
When pets become kin
The pet care project began with a conventional industry assumption: pets share our time and space, and owners seek help managing that daily cohabitation.
These assumptions shifted when the company invited outsiders whose work framed the human–pet relationship very differently.
A hotel manager observed that guests increasingly negotiate room bookings around their pets’ comfort. A home designer explained how clients reconfigure interiors around their animals’ needs. A pet sitter recounted owners who refuse to accept jobs that require leaving a dog alone for more than three hours. A pet psychologist added that emotional spillover from pandemic-era attachment has left many dogs in need of more attention.
These insights fall outside the typical market data that normally inform business decisions for a pet supply brand. They provided new perspectives and helped reframe the meaning of the company’s products.
Gradually, the understanding of pet care moved from managing routines to nurturing bonds. Pets were no longer considered animals, but family members growing alongside their humans. This shift opened a different innovation space for the company and raised a new set of questions. Why should a pet not have a birthday cake? Why should a product or service not help a pet feel secure during separation?
The questions changed because the underlying meaning of the products changed.
A new era for the tripod
For the professional photography company, the challenge was clear. As both professional and mobile phone cameras have become more advanced, photographers no longer require tripods to stabilize images. Once a must-have for every photographer, the tripod was becoming obsolete.
Instead of continuing to compete on stability, the team turned to people working in digital storytelling, creative software, and commercial production workflows to explore alternative possibilities. Unlike photographers, these experts were not concerned with technical specifications. They focused instead on tempo, editing rhythms, content demands, and the blurring line between still and motion capture.
One participant noted that in modern commercial shoots, the tripod’s value lies not in holding the camera still but in holding the creative process steady – freeing hands, enabling faster iteration, supporting consistent framing for postproduction – or allowing a single creator to perform multiple roles on set.
The frame shifted. A tripod was no longer primarily a tool for stability, but an enabler of creative flow.
This reframing allowed the team to look beyond the traditional definition of the category. Instead of competing on millimeters or weight, they could focus on supporting a new creative ecosystem. As a result, their focus shifted from hardware improvements to collaborative accessories and software integration.
Identity-shaping haircare
The hair care project began with the hypothesis that Generation Z treats identity as a more fluid concept than earlier generations. Identity is seen as something to be updated, reshaped, and expressed with the same freedom as fashion. When external experts engaged with this idea, however, they introduced perspectives the team had not anticipated.
An educator described students returning from time abroad transformed not only in style, but in worldview. A fashion expert noted that younger generations experiment not to “fit in,” but to consciously craft who they wish to become. A cultural observer pointed out that identity exploration often coincides with moments of uncertainty, transition, and self-discovery.
Through these conversations, the frame evolved. Identity was not merely fluid; it was active. It was something young people create and recreate through experiences, contexts, and communities. Hair care, in this light, was less about managing a look and more about supporting a personal narrative. It concerned transformation, experimentation, transition, and the emotional arcs that shape how young people see themselves.
In other words, hair care shifted from being a line of products to becoming an integral part of self-branding and personal development.
Skincare in a changing moral landscape
In the Japanese skin care company, experts from fashion, gaming, sustainability, and digital culture reflected on how notions of beauty and authenticity are shifting. Their perspectives revealed not only stylistic preferences, but also evolving values.
One expert questioned how beauty should be defined in a world where digital identity blends with physical self-presentation. Another pointed to growing demands for ethical transparency: clarity about ingredients, how rituals affirm self-care, and how brands express responsibility.
These conversations introduced a moral dimension to the reframing process. The discussion moved from what kinds of innovation were possible to whether certain innovations were desirable at all. The frame expanded from “what skin care can do for the skin” to “what skin care should represent in a changing cultural landscape.”
This shift directed attention toward values, commitments, and practices that can guide future innovation and investment decisions.
Key takeaways for practitioners
Across all four projects, a similar pattern emerged. External experts helped organizations reframe their products or services by stretching the reasoning space, challenging assumptions with alternative interpretations, and imagining futures that made new meanings plausible.
The research suggests that reframing is not a sudden moment of insight. It is a collective process of reasoning out loud that requires proximity to new perspectives, tolerance for ambiguity, and a willingness to question what has long been taken for granted.
When organizations give themselves permission to rethink the meaning of their categories, they do not just innovate more effectively. They innovate from a deeper and more resonant understanding of the world they intend to shape.