Pyramiding
= a technique to uncover lead users, by asking users who are there mentors and going up this chain of references
Description
1.
"principle of networking from innovators to more advanced innovators is known as ‘pyramiding’ (von Hippel, Thomke, & M., 1999), and it is a modified version of the ‘snowballing’ technique developed in sociology (Bijker, 1995)." (http://www.lltoolbox.eu/methods-and-tools/methodologies/lead-user-method)
2.
"Pyramiding is a search process based upon the view that people with a strong interest in a topic or field tend to know people more expert than themselves. Von Hippel states that it can sometimes be hard to identify lead users or the next CEO of any given company and pyramiding can assist in this process." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_von_Hippel)