Managing tensions in user groups

User groups are increasingly advocated as a means of ensuring that the new product development process is sensitive to user needs. However, these groups tend to be used as a medium of marketing as well as design. This multiplicity of purpose, moreover is aggravated by the fact that the groups may be required to input into different stages of the design process. Using ethnographic data from interviews and observations of riser group meetings in a small software company, this paper identifies the tensions which can arise in a user group, the incompatibility of dealing with broad conceptualisation and routine field testing, the tensions arising between sophisticated and less sophisticated or experienced users, and the use of the group to build a positive relationship with users whilst managing the disappointment created when all users' needs cannot be accommodated. The paper discusses the problems of managing these tensions and suggests mechanisms to defuse them. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved.