A common strategy of producers to cope with increasing competition is to involve users in their business processes. User integration happens, among other reasons, because producers seek knowledge about product usage. In order to access this knowledge, a plethora of approaches and methods can be applied. Many of these are discussed in different but related domains, such as Open Innovation and Design Thinking. The goal of this paper is to start an investigation of these different approaches and structure them according to a single context. This single context is provided by a model describing the sharing of knowledge between user and producer. In this paper, the sharing is based on the mutual exchange information. Knowledge sharing is facilitated by two strategies: user integration and producer integration. Paradigms such as mass production, mass customization and servitization are put into the context of the model. Within the discussion, more specific approaches like Social Media exploitation, Product Embedded Information Devices, Design for X, product takeback and product services are structured according to the proposed model and the two strategies. The conclusion of this paper names open questions, such as the role of information quality and rewarding users for sharing their information with producers.
