The environment where companies operate is radically changing. Information systems (IS) products and services must fulfill the needs of a variety of consumers. We believe that the successful creation of new services and products targeted to these wide audience end-users require new ways to incorporate them in the IS development. Literature reveals that the lead user approach, especially the finding and recruiting of the lead users, can be most burdensome for the firms to adopt. Hence, we

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... a solution that encompasses the utilization of virtual communities to overcome these problems: we suggest lead users to be found from virtual communities. This paper provides a theoretical discussion on the area. We propose a novel approach, the Balloon Process Framework, to make use of the possibilities provided by the Internet -not only in recruiting the lead users -but also when collaborating with them utilizing distributed Group Support Systems.