Due to the advent of the age of social media, youth culture, typically catalysed by media and fashion movements and bound by geographic location, is behaving in an entirely atypical manner, changing the way innovation is diffused among consumers. With this, the methods employed by marketing practitioners may be in danger of being rendered archaic as the innovations and trends that they pursue operate in an exaggerated and accelerated state of flux as the barriers between traditional subcultures collapse and merge, further challenging the functions of design management in a NPD project. This paper aims to investigate these phenomena through primary research (based upon the findings of six case studies and ten in-depth interviews). A theoretical reworking of Roger’s diffusion of innovations model illustrates the shortening of trends and the increase in velocity of tipping due to the wider population of innovators and early adopters that social media allows. This leads to the urgency of involving consumers in the process of innovation; and participatory design being an important aspect of NPD. The discussion implies that the function of design management should shift from acquiring marketing intelligence to facilitating the involvement of consumers in the process of innovation and NPD.