Innovation and product development.

The vision of connected life and work is the leitmotif of our innovation process. After all, our products are connected with each other. We view and develop them from the customer’s perspective, because in our opinion, every customer should be able to decide his or her personal digital lifestyle. And we want to help them to do so. However, connected life and work is not only relevant for our products, it also plays an important role in innovation and product development, creating close links between our experts, external partners, and also customers.

Our Products & Innovation unit is responsible for innovation and product development – from Group-wide research & development as well as innovation management and marketing, through to product development and management, and management of our product portfolio. The aim is to develop innovative and competitive products, services and business models. We are pursuing the joint mission of Superior User Experience & Simplicity drawing on broad knowledge of markets and customers in conjunction with innovation and technology expertise. Customer focus, simplicity, an outstanding user experience, a high-quality product port-folio, and sustainable profitability play a key role in this context.

When it comes to innovation, we act according to the principles of open innovation and user-driven innovation. We develop innovations together with customers and partners – always focusing closely on the needs of our customers. One instrument, for example, is the Creation Center, which develops product ideas and concepts for all units of the Group. Together with researchers, we quite literally look into customers’ living rooms and develop consistent concepts for consumers together with the product managers.

Our Group’s research and development activities are brought together at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (T-Labs), a private scientific institute affiliated to the Berlin University of Technology (TU Berlin). Around 180 scientists as well as 180 experts from Deutsche Telekom work in Berlin, Darmstadt, Beer Sheva (Israel), and Los Altos (California, United States) to develop prototypes for innovative products and services. T-Labs primarily works on projects and new technologies that are expected to be marketable or launched in 18 months to five years.

We participate in national and international forums and committees to help shape future products and services, incorporating our interests and the wishes of our customers. Our T-Labs are networked with international partners from industry and renowned research institutions.

In order to find out what customers want, T-Labs set up the Innovation Forum: More than 900 Berlin households help in product tests, surveys, and on-site research. T-Labs also holds workshops in order to identify needs better and faster, some with specific target groups, such as senior citizens or young women. Those responsible for product development and design use these findings and put them into practice.

Business ideas generated by T-Labs that we do not adopt into our product portfolio, but which demonstrate a clear benefit for customers and are predicted to succeed in the market are spun off from our Group as independent companies. Providers of venture capital, such as T-Venture, give these spin-off companies not only the necessary equity capital, but also important expertise to then operate independently in the market. So far there have been four spin-offs from T-Labs, the most recent being YOOCHOOSE and wahwah.fm. To increase the number of spin-offs, we perform what is known as incubation management, which develops good ideas into marketable products faster and more systematically. The Entrepreneurs program at T-Labs has been devised to support internal and external start-up teams in unlocking potential from disruptive technologies by providing seed funding, for instance.