Nokia
Before the iPhone: How Co-Creation Shaped Nokia's Next Generation Smartphone Portfolio
Nokia engaged Forge CEO Scott Davis to define its mission-critical Nseries device portfolio - a suite of six devices that generated 20% of Nokia's $50 billion annual revenue and nearly 30% of its operating profit. The challenge was future-proofing a global smartphone portfolio years before anything would be in market - at a moment when the entire category was about to be transformed.
Impact & Outcomes
Nokia prioritized full touchscreen mono-block concepts as a direct result of the process - influencing its product development direction at a pivotal moment in smartphone history. Forge's approach contributed to the development of the N97 smartphone. Nokia leadership called it better than what they got from IDEO. The co-creation methodology introduced here became a powerful tool for future smartphone portfolio development.
Challenge
Future-proofing a global device portfolio years before launch - with no existing market signals to validate against - required a fundamentally different approach to user research. Traditional methods couldn't surface what people would want from devices that didn't yet exist. The team was global, cross-functional, and operating across Vancouver, Helsinki, New York, London, Mumbai, and Beijing. The stakes were enormous - this portfolio represented nearly a third of Nokia's operating profit.
Approach
Scott introduced co-creation to Nokia for the first time - a methodology that involved users directly in concept generation rather than just evaluation. A crucial element: participants sketched their ideal phone with zero technology constraints. These user-generated concept sketches proved remarkably consistent across vastly different cultures and geographies, revealing a surprising universality in what people wanted from a next-generation device. The process balanced visionary thinking with technological constraints, ensured the right internal stakeholders were involved, and anticipated future user needs rather than documenting current ones.
Delivery
A validated, user-generated concept direction that led Nokia to prioritize full touchscreen mono-block designs - and a repeatable co-creation framework Nokia could apply to future portfolio development. Scott's methodology marked the first time Nokia had undertaken such an extensive user-centric initiative at this scale, and directly influenced the development of the N97.
