{"id":27401,"date":"2018-11-09T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T14:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/ifly-uses-open-innovation-to-skydive-into-the-world-of-virtual-reality\/"},"modified":"2018-11-09T09:50:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T14:50:00","slug":"ifly-uses-open-innovation-to-skydive-into-the-world-of-virtual-reality","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/ifly-uses-open-innovation-to-skydive-into-the-world-of-virtual-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"iFLY uses Open Innovation to (Sky)dive into the World of Virtual Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

iFLY Indoor Skydiving, an entertainment company focused on bringing the dream of flight to its customers, recently launched a revolutionary new product that is among the best uses of virtual reality within the entertainment sphere. Although iFLY has been operating for 20 years, with a current portfolio of 40+ company-owned wind tunnels, not much had changed about their fundamental product offering until early 2018 with the launch of the iFLY Virtual Reality Experience.[1]<\/a>[2]<\/a> iFLY\u2019s Director of Product Development, Mason Barrett, leveraged open innovation to compensate for a lack of product and design experience within the company.<\/p>\n

iFLY\u2019s current locations (~70 tunnels including franchise locations)[3]<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Innovate or Stagnate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although iFLY had seen success over the past 20 years with explosive global growth, the core customer experience had not changed significantly, resulting in the majority of customers being \u201cfirst-time fliers,\u201d with comparatively few return customers.[4]<\/a> To generate more repeat interest and greater same-store sales growth, iFLY knew it needed to diversify its approach. In early 2017, iFLY had no set innovation process, no formal product team, and no clear path for implementing and launching a new idea. Yet, a little over a year later, iFLY successfully launched a revolutionary tech-enabled product to 40+ location across the globe. How did they do it? iFLY\u2019s Mason Barrett describes the situation he was tasked with in early 2017:<\/p>\n

With the explosion of experiential entertainment concepts like Topgolf or Escape the Room, iFLY needed to innovate to stay on its rapid growth trajectory. The senior leadership team had great ideas of what they thought customers wanted, but there was no over-arching strategy connecting those ideas, no development team, and relatively few resources dedicated to innovation. If we were to successfully change how the world looked at our experience, we would have to look in new places inside and outside the company for help with all aspects of the product development process.[5]<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

iFLY virtual reality promotional material[6]<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Path to Launch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Open innovation was a key element of iFLY\u2019s successful product launch. Barrett describes how the company\u2019s UK team leveraged crowdsourcing by conducting interviews with customers with varying backgrounds \u2013 from children who just flew in the tunnel for the first time, to super-users who come multiple times a week to enhance their flying skills. This customer research revealed a clear unmet desire: to make the iFLY experience an even closer simulation of a real-world skydive. The team capitalized on recent improvements in commercial-grade VR technology to further improve the experience.<\/p>\n

While virtual reality (VR) headsets were nothing new, iFLY was faced with designing a helmet-based VR system that could withstand 100+ mph winds in the tunnel. Operating on a tight timeline and with no real helmet design experience, iFLY leveraged open innovation to source feedback and potential solutions for \u201cwind proofing\u201d their new VR helmet, which eventually led to a patented design. Ideas were pulled from nontraditional sources within the company as well as external firms, with testing and feedback completed by employees and customers who had not previously been involved in the development process.<\/p>\n

iFLY\u2019s VR helmet design[7]<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the successful launch of VR including 4 different virtual experiences, iFLY has continued to leverage crowdsourcing for new content ideas. iFLY employees and customers are encouraged to vote on next virtual reality video offering, thus providing \u201cpre-screened\u201d development opportunities. iFLY is also considering \u201cContent Competitions\u201d to see who can create the best new VR video. By encouraging skydivers and other extreme athletes to submit their own flight videos, iFLY can simultaneously generate new content and viral marketing throughout the skydiving community.<\/p>\n

iFLY\u2019s original 4 VR experiences[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

While crowdsourcing was critical across multiple steps of the VR product launch, iFLY will need to broaden its crowdsourcing capabilities if it wants to continue generating high quality ideas. Currently, iFLY\u2019s crowdsourcing reach is limited to its previous customer base. iFLY can send out surveys and host focus-groups with previous customers; however, there is no centralized platform for idea sharing that can be accessed by non-customers. To keep innovating, iFLY will need to look beyond its current customers for ideas and open the innovation process up to non-customers. By doing so, iFLY could generate more diverse ideas and it could also attract potential customers that may not have been aware of the company before.<\/p>\n

In the short term, iFLY could benefit from creating a customer portal where customers can vote on new ideas and see which ideas have the most votes. This could lead to increased customer engagement and excitement, translating to increased return customers.<\/p>\n

Once the technology is in place with the internal customer platform, iFLY could benefit from partnering with other crowdsourcing platforms in order to access ideas from non-customers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is Open Innovation Sustainable?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is iFLY\u2019s innovation and product design process sustainable? Should they build more internal capabilities rather than relying on crowdsourcing?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Word count: 789)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cUnited States: Free-fall in love with beautiful destinations, where virtual reality meets indoor skydiving.\u201d\u00a0Asia News Monitor,<\/em> May 7th, 2018.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Indoor Skydiving Locations – Complete Worldwide Database. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.indoorskydivingsource.com\/tunnels\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Image source: iFLY company website, https:\/\/www.iflyworld.com\/about-us<\/a>, accessed November, 2018.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u201cA Complete History of the Vertical Wind Tunnel.\u201d Indoor Skydiving Source, <\/em>July 7th<\/sup> 2016, https:\/\/www.indoorskydivingsource.com\/articles\/a-complete-history-of-the-vertical-wind-tunnel<\/a>, accessed November, 2018.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Interview with Mason Barrett, iFLY Director of Product Development, November 4th<\/sup> 2018.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Image source: iFLY company website, https:\/\/www.iflyworld.com\/discover\/virtual-reality\/<\/a>, accessed November, 2018.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Image source: iFLY company website, https:\/\/www.iflyworld.com\/discover\/virtual-reality\/<\/a>, accessed November, 2018.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Image source: Jen Booton, \u201cWe went virtual reality skydiving and it felt like the real thing,\u201d Sport Techie<\/em>, May 29th<\/sup>, 2018, https:\/\/www.sporttechie.com\/we-went-virtual-reality-skydiving-and-it-felt-like-the-real-thing-iFLY-indoor<\/a>, accessed November, 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can a growing experiential entertainment company revolutionize its product offering? 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