Behavior Space: Play, Pleasure and Discovery as a Model for Business Value

Behavior Space proposes that corporations do not design products or services anymore: they design behavior spaces. Facebook is not a product, not a technology, but a behavior space. Innovation is the creation of a new behaviour space. The product or service is simply the catalyst that enables a new behavior space to emerge. The size of the behaviour space footprint, represents the potential value a product or service offers; the greater the value potential, the greater the monetization potential. Alexander Manu illustrates how these new concepts are transforming design and product development so that the process changes from a static and product-centred approach to one that is entirely centred on the user and their behaviours that emerge as they interact with what they have bought. He provides a new language to describe the way in which the physical, intellectual and emotional features of products and services achieve a relationship between the user and the brand. And he explains the concept of Play Value, which underpins the attraction for customers and depends on compelling experiences that are challenging, rewarding and absorbing; that never frustrate and that encourage repeated use. Designers and brand managers seeking to understand and exploit commercially the fundamental changes in consumers that are driven by technology, experience and social interaction will find Behavior Space a wonderful place to start.

Alexander Manu is a strategic innovation practitioner, international lecturer and author. He works with executive teams in Fortune 500 companies in industries as diverse as consumer packaged goods, media, advertising, mobile communications and manufacturing. Alexander lectures around the world on innovation, imagination, change agents and strategic foresight. He is a Senior Partner at InnoSpa International Partners, teaches Innovation, Foresight and Business Design at the Rotman School of Management, and is a Professor at the OCAD University in Toronto. In his client and research work, Alexander is involved in transforming organizations by exploring and defining new competitive spaces, the development of new strategic business competencies and creation of imaginative innovation methods. Author of a number of ground-breaking books on strategic innovation and design, Alexander has an exceptional and sustained activity as an international lecturer, being invited to give over 450 keynote lectures in 24 countries.