(Illustrated above) A scientist posts a question to an online forum about her analysis application and receives suggestions from other users, as well as a detailed answer from the vendor firm that created the tool.

An architect attends an annual convention where the user group for her building modeling application is hosting a panel discussion on different methods of applying the tool to real world projects. Since her firm is relatively new to using the product, she learns a lot from hearing about how other architectural studios approach their projects within it.

A financial trader regularly meets with other traders working in the same market specialty. In addition to building business relationships, one of the usual topics of discussion is how to make better use of the industry standard applications that most firms use.

How active are targeted individuals in various communities that are related to their professional practices?

Which existing, domain specific communities might be interested in mutually beneficial conversations about the formative direction of your product?

How might you connect with certain trusted and influential communities to gather insights, ideas, and feedback? What technologies and events do these groups congregate around and communicate through?

What larger design, technology, and market trends could impact your ideas about supporting user communities? Do contemporary collectives expect to have active conversations with related product vendors?

What new user communities might ideally form around the use of your envisioned product? How might the identities and segmentations of these groups reflect targeted domains and market segments?

How could your team foster the creation of one or more of these communities as part of actively releasing your technology?

What functionality concepts might your team envision to strongly tie the activities of certain user communities to your computing tool?

How could integral touch points, along with community action outside of your onscreen offerings, create opportunities for your firm to meaningfully connect with and support your user base?

How might your team’s approaches for supporting application user communities relate to your other functionality concepts for supporting cooperation, collaboration, and workspace awareness?

What implications could connection with user communities have on the brand of your sketched application concepts? On your marketing methods and messaging?

Do you have enough information to usefully answer these and other envisioning questions? What additional research, problem space models, and design concepting could valuably inform your team’s application envisioning efforts?