Previously, we looked at the three primary types of innovation most often practiced today. I discussed two polar opposites, which I call the Stoic approach and the Maelstrom approach. The Stoic is more like continuous improvement, whereas the Maelstrom is more like blue-sky, directionless brainstorming. The third method is somewhere in between and strives for the ideal future state. That third method relies heavily on an innovation narrative.
Innovation at the Point of Customer Frustration
Previously, I published a post on Apple’s innovation techniques, showing that their approach really wasn’t magic (Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation). Apple’s approach, as telegraphed by Steve Jobs, has always been to address customer frustration points or areas of strong customer desire that the marketplace is not addressing.
As an example, a while back I saw a Dyson vacuum cleaner advertisement. After addressing the innovations of a bagless vacuum, and replacing the wheels with a large pivot ball, Mr. Dyson said their mission was simple: to “solve the obvious problems others seem to ignore.” This is the perfect example of developing innovative solutions around customer frustrations. In this case, the vacuum cleaner bag and wheels had become so accepted and routine that few customers likely articulated those problems.
The same innovative approach requires a business to understand their customers, intimately know what they are looking for and why, and then understand what the frustrations or the limitations of the current products or services are. From there, a narrative of the new product or service can be created, innovated, piloted, adjusted, and then rolled out to the marketplace.
The key to innovation success is to directly connect all innovation efforts to a specific customer or business purpose. That connection requires you to get close enough to your customers and your marketplace to understand their frustrations, but also their difficult to articulate desires.
The “Creative Maelstrom” Vs. Innovation
Innovation purists would not agree with the limitations or restrictions on the process that I have proposed. However, innovation purists also live in a creative fantasyland where they do not allow constraints like budgets, deadlines, practical application, or other real-world considerations to get in the way of their creative maelstrom.
Businesses of all kinds have limited resources, limited capital, and limited ability to create new things. Because of this, businesses need an effective method to reduce the amount of time and cost to create new products or services.
On the other hand, many businesses are far too restrictive and shortsighted on what they refer to as innovation. What many call innovation is the pursuit of small, incremental changes that yield smaller and smaller benefits over time. This type of innovation is usually minor adjustments of existing products or services. While this focus on continuous improvement is useful for controlling costs, quality, and even customer satisfaction, it rarely produces innovative breakthroughs. If an innovative breakthrough occurs within the context of continuous improvement, it is generally on a micro scale (dealing with a small component or feature of a product or service) and rarely on a macro scale (a completely new design departure for a totally new product or service).
Stretch Innovation Examples with the Application of the Innovation Narrative
To innovate new products or services, you might take a similar approach as Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell.
When Edison set out to improve the light bulb for practical use, he was trying to solve a particular problem. He aimed to eliminate the risks of fire hazard or noxious fumes, while avoiding the current expensive and short-lasting versions of the light bulb.
Edison’s relentless pursuit and passionate drive to produce a effective light bulb shows his understanding of pursuing an ideal future state innovation narrative.
The same could be said of Alexander Graham Bell. Bell wanted people who were far away to be able to talk to each other as if they were next door. Bell’s narrative was also a relentless pursuit of an ideal future state innovation narrative, even if the narrative wasn’t written on paper.
The difference between the approach I’m proposing and those history-making inventors is the addition of a structured approach to define and then articulate the innovation effort. To that end, I have devised a very simple approach for moving from innovation to market: From Collaboration to Innovation to Market – Toward a Working Model.
Creative Writing in the Innovation Process
I read an article about a creative writer who was candid about his inability to live up to the authors he admired. As a result, he retooled his creative skills and turned to industrial design. From what I saw, some of the things he created were eye-pleasing (and popular) works of art with a functional design.
He started the design work because he could construct a narrative to immerse the customer in each individual product. I will call that this concept the “innovation narrative.”
His approach was a great use of his creative writing talents– and I don’t see why business and technology couldn’t use this design methodology .
The Stretch option, or striving for the future state, requires the construction of a narrative similar to a home elevation or artist’s rendering (rather than the entire blueprint). Over time, the innovation architects fill in the details of the blueprint. Those innovation architects build out the various parts of the future state through development of new products or services, which move toward the ideal future state.
This type of innovation, design, and prototyping is similar to creating mission and vision statements for a business, but they are product- or service-focused.
The Innovation Narrative as a Change in Innovative Design Approach
An innovation narrative is simply a fancy name for a written statement about the end state of a new product or service. The narrative considers what customers do not like about a particular product or service, and then addresses those needs with positive change. It also looks at unserved, underserved, or completely new applications for the product or service. The narrative carefully evaluates the marketplace from an outsider’s perspective to understand where there are unmet desires for a product or service.
Done effectively, this narrative serves as a guiding framework for development of the new products or services. For products, it generally involves a departure from the current “form, fit, or functions” of current products. For services, it involves significant modifications to service delivery methods, quality, and polish.
Creating an innovation narrative already exists in the marketing departments of most mid- and large-sized companies. What is lacking is the capture of the critical data to develop the narrative and its timing.
Marketing Involvement in Innovation
At many companies, marketing involvement frequently occurs after a new or revised product is either conceived or already underway. The marketing department then finds ways to position that business item and help the salesforce generate buzz around it. However, if marketing veterans are involved in the early design stages, they may be significantly more effective. They can use their sales and marketing talent to create an innovation narrative around what the new product or service should be at final delivery in the marketplace.
Marketing, sales, and engineering or design should be involved right from the beginning. Talented marketers know how to position products or services, and the salespeople are skilled at selling them. By incorporating key sales and marketing people into the early stages of product or service development, the entire process becomes more customer focused.
The idea here is to create a narrative that contains the details of the customer frustrations and marketplace aspirations. The narrative should include items that the marketplace has a hard time articulating, such as customer aspirations. This narrative needs to be more than marketing hype. It must contain enough detail to address the customer’s actual perspective about the new product or service.
