LNCS 8521 - Collaborative Innovation Research on Co

S. Yamamoto (Ed.): HIMI 2014, Part I, LNCS 8521, pp. 491–502, 2014. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

Collaborative Innovation Research on Co-working Platform Based on Lean Startup Model

Yin Li, Qinghua Guo, and Zhiyong Fu

Academy of Art and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. In this paper, an infrastructure level and relevant characteristics of a target user focused on co-working platform is raised, exploring the spatial interactive prototypes that aim to build a co-working context and elements of related service system quickly. A web-based open source system integration solution is applied to test the co-working pattern and communication behavior of design teams, mean while, design process management features of cross-cultural remote collaborative platform is explored based on lean user experience design.

Keywords: Collaborative innovation, Co-working, lean Startup.

1 Research Background

With the ongoing increase of the innovative platforms in China, more and more innovating reams are in need of collaboration. Along with this related growing demand of innovating teams, many researches have put their focus on this issue. Furthermore, this demand leads to the teeming of the virtual design teams, and makes them more and more significant. The communication among team members thus becomes crucial during the cooperating process that driven by design. Last but not least, this situation has actually come up with a number of new requirements aiming at the collaborative working patterns and prototyping serving design.

2 Introduction

Through the research on collaborative innovation work demands of creative teams in different places under different conditions, a web-based open source system integration solution was created by a co-working team owned by service design lab of Tsinghua University, exploring the spatial interactive prototypes that aims at building a co-working context quickly, and elements of related service system. Different from existing systems, global laboratory exploration that based on Lean Startup model, more inclined to card the design processes as well as the idea of generating core concept. By inviting creative teams from different countries to run the tests to explore how the system could support collaborative innovation more effectively.

492 Y. Li, Q. Guo, and Z. Fu

3 Related Research

3.1 The Research Progress of Collaborative Innovation

The research on collaborative innovation in China takes enterprise as the medium relatively. Domestic scholars analyze the intension of collaborative innovation in the perspective of combining “innovation element collaboration” with “innovation subject collaboration”. There is more literature about the intension of collaborative innovation abroad than it is in China, as the overseas studies began earlier. Abend·C. Joshua considers “innovative perception, process, people and organization” are core contents of collaborative management, collaborative subjects are no longer bound to enterprises but various organizations, and tools like brainstorming is an important mean to enhance productivity. Huber·George discusses issues between organizational learning and collaborative issue in depth, believes “innovation ability” can be increased by applying three patterns in organizational learning, and innovation pushes organizational learning level to a spiral through process practice. Brian Morris applied empirical study in innovative factors that exert significant impact to high-tech research and development through social networks, and further enrich the means to achieve collaborative innovation.

3.2 The Research Progress of CSCW

The research and practice in computer supported cooperative work and ubiquitous computing support the development of co-working field with theory, method, and technology. The rapid development of the internet facilitates not only promotes the study of CSCW itself, but also greatly promotes the development of online collaborative work applications, especially the development of cooperative learning systems in the Web environment. Such as the group visual learning system developed by Northwestern University: the goal of this program is to build an electronic community, which combines the teachers, students, scientists, and other museum education researchers to learn through interaction and cooperation among them; with the asking and solving problem approach to conduct learning activities, as well as establishing a bidirectional, shared virtual learning environment.

Such projects are mostly based on a single Web-based environment or a fixed space, but with less consideration in how to make it easier for a small team to build relevant service systems flexibly.

4 Explorations of Collaborative Working Platform Base Module

4.1 Target User

At the user research phase, leaders and team members interviewed by us are from 5 startup teams and 15 teams that participated in Makeathon held in Beijing. 20 interview videos and 24 effective questionnaires are obtained.

Collaborative Innovation Research on Co-working Platform 493

Table 1. Questionnaire Questions Options Effective feedback What kind of tool or service are your team using? Knowledge sharing, read it later, version control, project management, time management, multi-user charts, cloud sync, network drives, file sharing, supplemented 73

How do your team discuss ideas or communicate? E-mail, in the studio / conference room face to face, telephone / IM tool for discussion, using project collaboration tool

37 Have there been the following questions when using IM tools to communicate?

Dialogue is too long and useful information is submerged; too much discussion topic lack of purposeful; no voice recording tools; personal contact on the IM tools affect the progress of work. 32

Schedule tasks to others in the following ways: Traditional means of communication; e-mail; IM communications tools; project collaboration tools. 52 When a task acquires several people to complete, you would encounter the following situations when handover tasks with others:

I will break down the task and assign the task to the right person; when handover task the details omissions; misunderstanding delays progress; no feedback after scheduled tasks; you can not know others’ working progress. 66

The way you share information with team members: Social networking, IM, Email, knowledge sharing, project management 71

How to preserve or organize the concept generated from discussion? Notes; paper notebook; Evernote; sound recordings; photographs. 53

Do your team have following problems during discussion? Do not understand each other's expertise during the discussion; the topics are too much to concentrate in thinking; unable to recall the details of the online conference discussion; some functions such as sketches exchanges cannot be achieved restrict to the online discussion tools and contexts.

48

The way to preserve the history versions: Nomenclature, version snapshot, version control 30 When you have to modify a file with other people will you use following tools:

Use USB to copy the file to each other; network transmission; synchronization tools; Git / SVN share 45

The questionnaire investigates on knowledge sharing, communication approach, task management, knowledge management, document preservation and other aspects of the daily teams. According to the number of effective feedback from the chart above we can see that the team members are very concerned about problems such as how to share knowledge effectively, how to manage task, and how to comb and


storage information from the process of discussion. How can collaborative work platform integrate existing features and tools quickly, flexibly and efficiently, and at the same time meet the need of collaboration of designers, engineers, and product managers? Therefore, the establishment of an effective coordination mechanism and service module is a necessary condition to achieve collaborative innovation (task).

4.2 The User Needs of Co-working

Based on video interviews and questionnaires, we collate the basic needs of typical user on collaborative work platform and. Most members of the innovative teams consist of students from different disciplines: design, management, and technology three typical users. At different stages of innovative teams, the number of the three typical users will be slightly different. It is very challenging to create collaborative work platform for task diversification, and multi-role participation. Though the three typical users have different disciplinary backgrounds, by planning the overall classification of the collaborative work platform, the basic needs of the collaboration platform can maintain the overall consistency.

Table 2. User Needs of Co-Working Platform

Availability Collaborative Persistency

Lower learning costs

Discussion with clear context

Reliable and stable

High efficiency usage

Information needs of symmetry

Improve mobile applications

Easier to find data More pleasant design

4.3 Base Module Features of Co-working Platform

By combing findings from user research and user needs induction, sorting out the three basic characteristics collaborative work platform base module should have.

Availability. Team members with various cultural backgrounds can communicate for the common goal of innovation on CSCW based collaborative work platform in different locations and time, even work together in the cloud storage supported network environment.

Collaborative. The platform must ensure the design environment and the context information between teams as well as team members is consistent. Due to personnel involved in the communication can be within the team, or also be derived from external members from other laboratories worldwide, the platform must be easy for teams to communicate efficiently by using variety of resources and information.


Persistency. Team managers and members in the process of the project can adjust the system modules quickly according to changes in mission requirements by increasing or decreasing the team staff, which requires the system with better scalability that enables dynamic integration of heterogeneous systems.

4.4 Basic Framework Structure of Co-working Platform

From the physical level to the virtual level, collaborative work platform system modules can be divided into four levels: physical space level, basic collaboration level, management level, and resource environment level.

1. Physical space layer mainly aims at the collaborative demand of different projects, and describes the scope of its structural and physical workspace requirements. Here are the rules: the size of the physical space, the regional function, shape, structure, materials, safety, environmental protection and many other attributes.

2. Basic collaboration level is after physical space level. Individual team members choose different collaboration tools accord with the project schedule based on individual and team needs. Tools of this level include physical and virtual collaborative toolkit, containing thought combing, instant messaging, data visualization, remote 3D printing etc.

3. The management level is the core level of the system module, a variety of creative collaboration ideas and vision are brought into it together for all the participants to involve in co-management, review, discuss and share jointly. New plan will be formed and unreasonable ideas will be eliminated through discussion and demonstration. This level includes project management, task management, schedule management, personnel management and other modules.

4. Environment level is a service level that sort out stakeholders for collaborative work platform in a multi-angle including individuals, teams, projects, etc. It provides teams with external resources recommendation, project process guidance, human resources management, project resource management and other services timely and efficiently.

5 Solutions

In order to verify the characteristics of collaborative work platform and the user needs, the basic collaboration and management level were chosen as the entry point for verification test, and project "Co-Matrix" was launched at the same time. "Co-Matrix" is a service module that helps start-up teams to improve working efficiency as well as optimize the design process experience. It mainly consists of hardware and remote communication systems of Matrix series in collaborative workspace, emphasizing the immediacy experience of working environment and controllability of the design process (Fig. 1 shows an example).


Fig. 1. Co-Matrix System Map

5.1 Design Method

Lean Startup thinking points out that the innovative team is not just creating valuable products, but to learn how to create sustainable growth business model, like Eric Ries describes in "The Lean Startup" as " validated learning." In project Co-Matrix, under the instruction of lean user experience design guidelines, various assumptions were implemented into prototypes during product iteration cycles. To verify whether the product truly hits the needs of users, and whether the user are willing to accept the functions provided as solutions to their needs.

5.2 Co-working Platform Back-end Implementation Methods

Use Web Socket communication protocol and WebRTC technology to build an HTML5-based multi-people involved cross-platform real-time collaborative system based on CSCW platform environment. Create collaborative server that provides a variety of collaborative services; using data management server to manage a comprehensive database and sharing module; provide users with various collaboration design tools, which can be dynamically added or subtracted through the application server. The Co-Working system structure is presented as follows (Fig. 2 shows an example).

Fig. 2. Co-matrix System Structure

Based on the collaborative design theory described previously and take Node.JS as basic supporting technology, a data management server of Co-Matrix can be established,


which achieves comprehensive management of the database, knowledge base, model base, and method base. By establishing collaboration servers, providing modular collaboration services, to enable collaborative design information integration, process integration and functional integration.

Collaborative design information integration includes: using HTML5 to achieve product structure information sharing management based on the sharing management information model. Collaborative design process integration includes: system management, mission planning and management, collaborative communication services, collaborative browsing service and other basic collaborative management services. Collaborative browsing service provides users with distance collaborative browsing that can view 3D models, 2D graphics and other text files. Under the support of comprehensive database, a knowledge management and integration systems is established, meanwhile the knowledge integration is achieved based on knowledge sharing and collaborative management model.

6 Testing and Evaluation

Eric Ries states minimum viable product (MVP) is the product that spends the least effort, the shortest development time to experience a complete 'development - Measurement - cognitive' loop in "The Lean Startup". Prototype testing was adopted as much as possible at the product concept exploration and design phases.

6.1 MVP Design and Testing (Phase One)

Prototype Design. The goal of the first phase of prototype test is to explore the basic collaboration level. Bringing team members in different locations to a same space to conduct creative communication jointly through video conferencing, remote whiteboard, sharing notes, and other toolkit. As the user operates the touch controller in the air the real-time trace of the controller can be presented on both screens, so that team members in different places can communicate or modify graphics in time in the audio and video state. The note-recording tool promotes the concept evolution within the team members by saving massive notes during the brainstorming process. It keeps the timeliness of brainstorming by recording the content of the notes in physical space and sending them to team members in the first place (Fig. 3 shows an example)

Fig. 3. Co-Matrix Prototype Design


Node.js was applied to build a server in this solution and it achieved remote video calls by using GetUserMedia API and RTCPeerConnection API provided by WebRTC; it also achieved functions like color recognition, canvas painting, and note snapping through the demo offered by tracking.js; and meanwhile it implement real-time communication between the clients by using socket.io to transmit critical data.

Prototyping. During Prototyping three groups of users were selected (2 user per group) for a 10-15 minutes unrestricted usage test in a simulated working context. Interviews with every group were conducted after the test and they also filled out questionnaires later on. User feedbacks from the interviews were organized and assessed. The questionnaire aims to score on the three interaction qualities: availability, collaborative, and persistency of the prototype, as presented in (Figure) in order to show the swiftness of MVP, score on a scale of 0 to 3.

The first group of tested users has computer science background. They think the performance of tested module reaches their expectations; the context of note snapping is very compelling to them; the context of the interactive pen is still up for debate.

The second group of tested users has design or computer science background. They have approval in terms of collaborative, and they also agree with the interaction context of note snapping. They have certain requirement on the interactive pen but they are not pleased by the test result.

Table 3. MVP (1) User Rating Table

Quality Definition User 1a

User 1b

User 2a

User 2b

User 3a

User 3b

Rating

Availability Immediate, direct,

fast, feedback

3 2 1 1 2 3 12

Collaborative

Unity, shared,

adapted, inclusive,

adjustable

2 3 3 2 3 3 16

Persistent Open, free,

natural, supportive

0 1 1 2 1 2 7

The third group of tested users has design background. They agree with the holistic

context and they think the canvas painting and note snapping functions during the remote video communication meet their needs. During the test, they drew effective interaction prototypes onto the screen and also left useful discussion records via the tools provided. (The latency problem appeared in the video test was caused by the improper campus network settings.)

The current beta version can meet the remote collaboration needs of designers well through the analysis of interviews and questionnaires. To improve operating speed and functionality of the product functions for project managers and engineers would be the core demand of the next iteration. Adding user system and project management interface corresponds with the former system plan, which means to add management level onto the basic collaboration level.


Table 4. MVP (1) Function Improvement Table

Function optimization point

Product improvement points Increased functionality

Draw smoothly Responsive canvas, and stay the same context

User System

Part of screen recording

Miniaturize the interacting stick Instant message

Color tracking algorithm's efficiency

improvement

WIFI module using in transmission

Screen/Video/Audio recording

Audio processing to avoid noise

Users self register more color Muilti-User video conference

Sharing Screen Sharing drag event Participate in conference without

camera Fluent and distinct

video/audio signal Video/Audio signal firewall

traversal Video room control

privileges iOS compatibility Audio conferience

6.2 MVP Design and Testing (Phase Two)

For the lean user experience design, there has a similar "development - measurement - cognitive" loop, the "thinking - realize - test" loop. The involved feedback within the second loop not only includes external measurement data but also thoughts from designers. According to internal (self) and external (target object or demand side) feedbacks designers generate new cognitions to improve the plan. The plan will be validated and again new cognitions appeared which formed a cycle.

Management level was added after the first iteration of the functional prototype modules. The management level seeks to visualize data service information of the projects required to be displayed, so that the team managers and team members can learn about the project progress, time planning, resource allocation, personal health status and other information in real-time. By providing a unified data display format, it gives teams a design communication environment for integrated new product development.

Fig. 4. Smart City exhibition of Beijing International Design Week 2013


Content Display module provides team managers with an intuitive, efficient and operational service management operating system (Fig. 4 shows an example). Team managers can keep abreast of the current personal status, work progress, accomplished work, and relevant data of team members, also information of related expert consultants and energy consumption status of the entire team within the same project. In a cross-functional creative team, team members are from different regions with their own habits and work patterns, therefore the communication in a virtual environment requires consideration of the characteristics of different disciplines and cultural backgrounds. Content Display system aims to break the traditional work mode, making the whole project process transparent, mobilizing the team members’ responsibility and enthusiasm to keep the entire project moving on properly.

The second prototype of Co-matrix attended the Smart City exhibition of Beijing International Design Week 2013. It withstood a lot of user testing during the exhibition and two successful remote online tests with the mobile lab of Delft University of technology and urban informatics lab of University of Queensland were carried out. And together with Seoul National University, Chiba University, and Parsons School of Design demonstrated accomplished projects in case study module. Through the real system test and user interviews during the exhibition the basic system module framework gave a lot of support to the basic needs of discussion within team members, as well as established a collaborative work context via the system tool module, which built a collaborative work experience.

6.3 Next Step

The goals of the third phase of the collaborative work platform will focus on the development of online develop toolkit of the collaboration level and the resources matching module of the environment level. The iteration of management level would be continued, as well as it of product optimization in terms of availability, collaborative, and consistency.

Table 5. The Analysis of Core Module of Competing Products

BaseCamp Asana Teambition Worktile Tower Matrix Task Inbox O O O O O O Quick Task O O O RT Recording O Sub Task O O O Calendar Calendar O O O O O O Cal. Service O O O Discussion Resource O IM O O Camera O Rate Function 3 3 4 5 4 3 UI 4 5 5 3 4 4


Compared with competing products in the Internet field like BaseCamp, Asana, Teambition, Worktile, and Tower, removing basic task management, schedule management, document management functions, these products didn’t make further development in discussion module and only Co-Matrix and Worktile have IM function. Co-Matrix builds a bridge across the gap between physical and virtual space in the context combining the discussion module usage with physical workspace. Otherwise, the resource matching and knowledge-sharing module is unique in the environment Level of Co-Matrix, which indicates the collaborative work platform not a collection of collaborative tools, but an aggregation of people, environment, and data. It’s the future development direction of collaborative innovation platform.

7 Conclusion

This study is based on the agile experience design concepts and methods. First of all, using the co-working space model as the core, through the integrate research on usage scenarios formed by the offline contact points and the online information services, explores how creative teams perform effective teamwork in the creative phrase under typical development mode, also a diachronic analysis on creative concept development was performed. Through the rational use of existing mature information technology, integrating physical and virtual environment, combined with user research evaluation and user feedback data for rapid prototype iteration, building service prototypes and interaction solutions that are more easier for teams which have the nature of cross-time zone and cross-cultural to use. The final output of this study is a new solution in the aspect of service products and system prototypes, which consist of universal co-working service mode and effective online and offline communication channels for the global laboratory.

Acknowledgement. I wish to thank Jieyun Yang and Wenbo Yi for their hard work in this project. I also would like to thank Wei Liu and Prof. Marcus Foth for their support on remote testing, and Prof. Christopher Mustafa Kirwan for his instructions.

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LNCS 8521 - Collaborative Innovation Research on Co