Co-constructing new concept stories with users

One of the challenges for companies when developing concepts for new products, services or applications is whether or not the concepts will make sense to the user. And evidence that a concept will be valuable should preferably become available early in the design process. Involving users in the process of reflecting on new concepts makes sense because they are domain experts. However, in order to judge whether a concept will bring added value, users need to envision future contexts of use. We present the Co-Constructing Stories method, which aims to facilitate this envisioning process for users. In one-to-one sessions of less than an hour, first users are prompted by stories about the current context, helping them recollect relevant real life experiences for sensitization. Next, they are prompted through future scenarios to envision possible future experiences that may be enabled by the concept. In this paper we explain the method and discuss its background and relation to other methods. We introduce a case study in which the method was applied. Based on the insights gathered through this and similar case studies, we provide guidelines for designers who might be interested to use the method in the future.