How to Clean Up Your Innovation Mess
According to the late Wharton Professor Russell Ackoff, attempting to innovate without first validating customer demand is a “mess.” Indeed, any situation that has “arguable issue definition and arguable solutions” is a mess. In other words, if you are trying to solve a problem that has not been clearly defined first, you are creating a mess.
Most organizations try to avoid making messes but, in the world of innovation, companies often revel in it based on the misbelief that “innovation begins with an idea.” Not true. New product development starts with an idea, but innovation begins with an insight.
Every fully formed new product idea is comprised of:
- An insight into the target customers’ unmet needs, and
- A novel way to address those needs better.
If you want to turn innovation into a repeatable business process that consistently delivers results, then you must discover your customers’ unmet needs before attempting to solve their problems.
The challenge is that most organizations don’t know how to identify their target customers’ unmet needs. Consequently, they waste time and resources testing a lot of bad ideas. In reality, any idea that does not address an important unsatisfied need is a “bad” idea. Testing ideas that address unimportant and/or already well-satisfied needs is a waste of time and resources. Only needs that are important and unsatisfied are opportunities for innovation and growth and worthy of your pursuit.
What if you could identify and rank the biggest opportunities for innovation and growth in your market from the customers’ point of view, independent of any solutions, with statistical validity, before generating ideas?
Further, what if you knew where to focus and what to do to address your target customer’s unmet needs, create unique value, and drive growth in a repeatable manner? Could that change the game for you? Would that clean up your innovation mess?
Learn how our clients are turning innovation and growth into a repeatable business process, clients such as Becton Dickenson, BRP (Can-Am), Cintas, Franklin University, General Motors, GBQ Partners, Herman Miller, Ingersoll Rand, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, NetJets, the National Fire Protection Association, Reynolds and Reynolds, J.R. Simplot, and many others.
Reveal needs. Create value. Drive growth. We can help.
(A version of this article appeared in The Business Journals on January 5, 2021)
