In Europe the paradigms of local governance have changed from the old public administration to New Public Management and public governance. The innovation policy of the 21^st century entails broadening the concept of innovation from the private sector to public service innovation together with service users. User-centricity means that the development of services is based on the needs of citizens and the focus is on users rather than on production. In theory, citizens have two channels for participation in public service reform: the traditional way to participate in decision-making on services through user democracy and a new, more innovative way to participate as users in service provision. Two Finnish case studies are used to illustrate how municipalities are implementing user-driven innovation policy. The first case study describes participation in decision-making, the second user-driven innovation in service provision. These cases show that service users are better prepared for the shift towards user-centricity than service providers