31 Innovation Questions (and Answers) To Kick Off the New Year

31 Innovation Questions (and Answers) To Kick Off the New Year

Scott Anthony
On: Disruptive innovation, Technology, Competition

9:45 AM Monday December 27, 2010 |

One of the simple ways that I try to make experimentation an everyday activity is to always try at least one new thing each time I give a presentation. One such recent experiment I called "choose your own presentation." I looked back at the 20 or so talks that I'd given this past year, and I tried to group material into the questions that I most commonly get asked. I ended up with 31 questions. My colleagues circulated the list before my presentation, and I went through the eight questions that garnered the most interest.

I thought it would be helpful to provide the list of 31 questions, and my one sentence perspective on each question, as it dovetails with my current book project (tentatively titled, The Little Black Book of Innovation.) Consider it a summary of what's on my mind as 2010 comes to a close.
How do you define innovation? Something different that has impact.
What are different types of innovation? Innovation is more than whiz-bang technology; consider different strategic intents (e.g., create a new category, extend current business) or innovation mechanisms (e.g., new product, distribution channel, marketing approach).
How do I spot opportunities for innovation? Go to the source: the customer you hope to target.
Which customers should I target? Look beyond your best customers to those who face a constraint that inhibits their ability to solve the problems they face in their life.
What should I look for? As Drucker said, "the customer rarely buys what the business thinks it sells him;" look for a job-to-be-done, an important problem that is not adequately solved by current solutions.
How should I look? Start with deep ethnographic research; avoid focus groups!
How do I come up with an idea? Remember the Picasso line "good artists copy, great artists steal;" seek to borrow ideas from other industries or geographies.
What is disruptive innovation? An innovation that transforms a market or creates a new one through simplicity, convenience, affordability or accessibility.
What is the best way to disrupt a market? Embrace the power of trade offs. Seek to be just "good enough" along historical performance dimensions but introduce new benefits related to simplicity or affordability.
What does "good enough" mean? Performance above a minimum threshold to adequately solve a customer's job to be done; sacrificing performance along traditional dimensions can open up new avenues to innovate.
What is a business model (and how do I innovate one)? How a company creates, captures, and delivers value; codifying the current business model is the critical first step of business model innovation.
How can I "love the low end"? Build a business model designed around the low-end customer's job-to-be-done.
How do I know if my idea is good? Let patterns guide and actions decide; remember Scott Cook's advice that "for every failure we had we had spreadsheets that looked awesome."
How can I learn more about my idea? Design and execute "high return on investment" experiments to address critical unknowns.
How can I get other people behind my idea? Bring the idea to life through visuals and customer testimonials.
How long does it take new businesses to scale? Almost always longer than initial projections; be patient for growth and impatient for profits.
Why is innovation so important? The "new normal" of constant change requires mastering perpetual transformation.
Why is innovation so hard? Most organizations are designed to execute, not to innovate.
Who are your influences? Academics like Clayton Christensen and Vijay Govindarajan, leading-edge innovative companies like Procter & Gamble and Cisco Systems, and thoughtful writers like Michael Mauboussin and Bill James.
How do I encourage innovation in my organization? Stop punishing anything that smells like failure, recognizing that failure is often a critical part of the innovation process.
What is "the sucking sound of the core?" The pull of the core business and business model that subtly influences new ideas so they resemble what the organization has done before.
What is an innovation "safe space"? An organizational mechanism that protects innovators from the sucking sounds of the core.
How should I form and manage innovation teams? Keep deadlines tight and decision makers focused.
What is in a good innovation strategy? Overall goals, a target portfolio for innovation efforts, a mechanism to allocate resources to achieve that portfolio, and clearly defined goals and boundaries for innovation.
What is the best way to manage an innovation portfolio? Make sure you correctly capture current activities and measure and manage different kinds of innovations in different ways.
What does 'prudent pruning' mean? Recognizing that destruction is often a critical component of creation.
What role should senior executives play in innovation? A big one.
How can I personally become a better innovator? Practice - innovation is a skill that can be mastered.
How can I find more resources for innovation? Shut down "zombie projects" that are a drain on corporate resources.
How can I more quickly turn good ideas into good businesses? Remember what Edison said - genius is "1% inspiration and 99% perspiration;" get ready to sweat.
Has anyone built the ability to innovate at scale? An increasing number of companies, such as Google, Apple, Procter & Gamble, Amazon.com, Cisco Systems, Godrej & Boyce and General Electric.

I would love to hear any other questions that are on your minds as I work with my colleagues to think about our research agenda for 2011 and beyond.



http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=307422170&gid=102813&type=member&item=38977176&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Ehbr%2Eorg%2Fanthony%2F2010%2F12%2F31_innovation_questions%2Ehtml%3Futm_source%3Dtwitterfeed%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter&urlhash=H0nV&goback=%2Egde_102813_member_38977176


==============================================================================
COMMENTS

Sort by Subscribe by email Subscribe by RSS
Kamal Hassan 5 days ago

Great list. If I make add: 32. Where do I start in my organization?
33. What is my innovation culture should look like?
34. How do I convince the people in my organization (at all levels) about innovation (the change management question)?
35. How to innovate with my customers, suppliers and my entire ecosystem?

6 people liked this. Like
Reply
Voniss Johnston 2 days ago in reply to Kamal Hassan

For your last question, visit http://www.openinnovation.net/ for some ideas. Also http://www.codevpd.org/

This is space that I am also very interested in exploring. Good Luck.

Like
Reply
Patrick Stähler 4 days ago

Scott, thx for sharing your thoughts. I particularly like the jobs-to-be-done approach to innovation. That fresh view helps to see a lot of uncontested markets. Jobs-to-be-done is a great way of market segmentation, leaving all the strange criteria like demographics, regions and segmentation like Lohas aside and focusing on the needs.

One question is missing: What is the purpose of your business? Just by focusing on your purpose (and that is not to earn money) you get better. You formulate your purpose in the value proposition of your business model: http://blog.business-model-inn.../ In the value proposition you translate the job into something valuable for your customer.

Best regards

Patrick

2 people liked this. Like
Reply
Purushottaman D 5 days ago

Great set of questions on innovation, concise and task oriented for business of any size.

1 person liked this. Like
Reply
Chris Bayes 5 days ago

Great questions Scott. Prudent pruning, understanding the reality of deconstructing something to create something of greater value can rapidly further an organizations innovative thought process.

1 person liked this. Like
Reply
Glenn 5 days ago

Scott!
This is a fantastic list of questions any business owner or entrepreneur should be asking! Many of these are applicable to any size business. As a follower of Treacy & Wiersma's work and their writings - where they propose your business model leads with Customer Intimacy, Operational Excellence or Innovation. Treacy & Wiersma identify you must be competent in all areas yet lead with one! Your list is a great tool to help raise competrency quickly in the Innovation sector!

Thanks

Glenn
http://www.beasuccessfulentrep...

Christian Sarkar liked this Like
Reply
Christian Sarkar 5 days ago in reply to Glenn

Good point Greg. Customer Intimacy has come a long way though, and is often neglected. Google the work of "Dean McMann on customer intimacy", for example!

Like
Reply
Amimasell 1 day ago

I would only change one thing, and say the definition of innovation, based on your words is: Something new and different that has the potential for making an impact. Though not solicited, my .02 cents.

Like
Reply
sabine taylor 2 days ago

I believe that if everyone did what they loved then there would be more innovation...more jobs. My question is that why is there not a follow your dream campaign by the government...sounds pie in skyish but this could be the solution that lowers unemployment

Like
Reply
Ken Rosen 2 days ago

Fantastic set Scott. Will use starting next week! Loved the "every failure had a spreadsheet that looked awesome" line.

Thanks, Ken
Performance Works
www.PerTalks.com

Like
Reply
Rahulsahasrabudhe 4 days ago

Excellent, feeling confident to innovate. Every idea is important no matter how silly it is.
I would like to know:
Once the innovative idea is accepted, what is the path to be followed from Idea into Prototype ?
This distance between Idea-----> Prototyping is a confusing and sometimes people think of giving it up, because of internal or external or unforseen reasons or risks.
Please if you let us know few points what next after idea is accepted that will be of great help


Like
Reply
Amit Tripathi 4 days ago

Thanks Scott for the relevant questions & insightful answers.

I wanted to ask what is the best way to incentivise for being innovative. Most organizations focus on execution & the culture supports that mindset. What levers or culture traits - help an organization being innovative ?

Like
Reply
Zak 4 days ago

How do I start a lucrative Toxic Assets business and finance it with Quantative Easing"?

Like
Reply
Dhina 4 days ago

Excellent Q's. I have something to add - not a question but a step for innovation. Conscious doing - if we keep doing the same thing again and again it becomes a habit and we blindly do it going forward. But if we observe what we do consciously, then we can question why we are doing in a certain way or even why we do it at all - this is the first step to innovation I feel.

Like
Reply
toquemag 4 days ago

Perfect timing for this as 2010 closes out. I pondered #13 carefully, which at first seemed contradictory. Aren't awesome spreadsheets little more than wishful thinking? Upon consideration, when I realized that spreadsheets are the "pattern to guide" and that we must look to the more important part of the equation, "let actions decide," then it clicked. Wishful thinking is NOT a bad thing if there is active, open-minded adjustments that follow.
Thank you!
Another critique: I'm always looking for ways to innovate as a party of one, as well. Some of these are pointed more towards groups and departments. How about a follow-up?

Like
Reply
Brian1284 4 days ago

32. Are we already innovative? Bringing a value-add benefit to a function that others already do.

Like
Reply
Berenice Ring 5 days ago

This is a really great post, Vincent! Innovation is one of the top subjects for companies today. I disagree, though, with your definition: "Something different that has impact". I'd say innovation is "To innovate is to come up with something new, introduce it to the market and have commercial sucsess." - Many people could think about "something different that has impact", the difficulty being, getting the resources, producing it and introducing it at the right place at the right time with the right marketing plan. Agree? Have a Happy New Year!

Berenice Ring - Innovation and Branding Professor at FGV University, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Like
Reply
Judy 5 days ago

Scott,
Thank you for a great list of concise questions on innovation. Appreciate everyone's insightful comments and agree with so many. Especially, Kamal's very key question, "What does the innovation culture look like?"

As management teams define innovation for their respective organizations, it might be valuable to ask, "What is the business of management in the next decade? What business should our management team be in future forward?" "Are enabling structures in place to release the human potential of our workforce?"

Finally, if I might add a follow-up question to #4, "How are we optimizing our workforce portfolio to leverage key talent, insights and innovation flow?"

Happy New Year!
Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS
The Infusion Group™
www.theinfusiongroupllc.com

Like
Reply
Raszwja 5 days ago

I'm curious - what were the 8 questions that your participants chose?

Like
Reply
Andy Ellwood 5 days ago

Great post. Quick hits with a lot of wisdom.
I'd like to echo Jorge's follow up question:

"If everybody agrees about the importance of innovation, then why are so few companies that master this practice?"

There seems to be so much room for innovation that is left untapped by the major players in the market place. How can innovation be fostered from the outside and cultivated from the inside?

Like
Reply
Ajeva 5 days ago

Wow... I think I will have to start asking myself these questions and see if I can make brevity work for my answers. Now, the toughest challenge is perhaps the realization that you know what innovation is all about and yet, you can't seem to cross the line between being good and becoming great. Come to think of it, innovation is taking an old concept and giving it a serious makeover - we always come up with something fresh, new... and lucky is the one who create it first.

Like
Reply
RichardMPalmer 5 days ago

I define innovation similarly as something NEW that has VALUE and therein lies the paradox of dealing with the early conception stage of innovations......you can only MEASURE VALUE in the past or present, and to see the opportunity of something genuinely NEW, you have to BELIEVE in the future. Two different worlds, and you need to keep them carefully apart at the beginning or you will short circuit the process......'so from our 200 brainstorming ideas, which ones are the good ones' .......oh dear!

Like
Reply
Jorge Galvez Choy 5 days ago

Simple and direct, just a few words that go directly to the core of innovation. At times when information seems to surpass our capacities, it's always good to find a brief and fresh article.

One more question to the list:
If everybody agrees about the importance of innovation, then why are so few companies that master this practice?

Jorge Galvez Choy

Like
Reply
Freelance Copywriter 5 days ago

Thank you. Clear, simple and inspiring.

Like
Reply
Vincent Carbone 5 days ago

Great post Scott... As "things" in general continue to become easier to make (because of digitalization), companies will need to really start looking at Innovation as a "business process" (like Sales, Finance, HR, etc). The key to innovation over the next 5 years is going to be formalizing the process of Innovation. This will include creating a "system of record" for innovation activities within companies. Every other mature business process in an company already has this and therefore it can be reported on and optimized. Thanks to Innovation Management Software and social functionality, Innovation can now be faciliatated and optimized as a business process. This will finally giving C-level executives the visibility and accountablity they need to manage their businesses with "Innovation" as a core driver.

Vincent Carbone
Co-Founder Brightidea.com
www.brightidea.com