Tuesday 15 April 2014

Innovation starts with a problem

Innovation starts with a problem

Quote:  Whatever can be done will be done. The only question is will it be done by you or to you? –
Thomas Friedman

Innovation is successful only when our customers or users are ready to change their behaviour. And why should they? We will have to give them a strong reason, why! So we have to start solving a relevant problem of the customer or user.





Let us ask ourselves the question: When was the last time I changed my own behaviour? We are all stuck in our habits:  doing things in same patterns. We as innovators, as well, do this. For years, we are go on reading the same newspaper (with almost similar news!), magazines, buying the same brand of tooth paste and soap, staying with the same bank or insurance company and so on. The only reason for us to change is, if a new, simple and attractive solution comes along that is relevant to our lives. Simply put, effective innovation is all about matching relevant problems with simple solutions.

We can approach it in two different ways. One way is to create the ideas and solutions first and later try to match these to target groups with problems relevant to our solutions. Or we can do it the other way first by identifying the relevant problems of the target groups and then creating ideas and solutions to solve those problems.

But how and where to find relevant problems?  Watching the customers and getting acquainted with them while they use our services or products is one way, like what “IDEO Designs” do? Hire anthropologists or financial analysts and let them to visit customers at their place / work and have the customers demonstrate how they work? Observe how they use in practice and identify the inconveniences they face, the extra clicks or moves they make, their waiting time, additional material they use etc.

What about forming ‘focus groups’ in your organization and invite the customers to share their experiences, difficulties, suggestions and ideas? A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. Focus group is an interview, conducted by a trained moderator among a small group of respondents. The interview is conducted in an unstructured and natural way where respondents are free to give views from any aspect. Focus group is also a survey method to collect the views of users on a software or website. This method can be applied to computer products to better understand the motivations of users and their perception of the product. Unlike other methods of ergonomics, focus group implies several participants: users or future users of the application.


Quote: Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think => Albert Einstein

What about forming ‘focus groups’ in your organization and invite the customers to share their experiences, difficulties, suggestions and ideas? A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. Focus group is an interview, conducted by a trained moderator among a small group of respondents. The interview is conducted in an unstructured and natural way where respondents are free to give views from any aspect. Focus group is also a survey method to collect the views of users on a software or website. This method can be applied to computer products to better understand the motivations of users and their perception of the product. Unlike other methods of ergonomics, focus group implies several participants: users or future users of the application.

Another effective method is Crowd sourcing, which is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional customers, employees or suppliers. This process is often used to subdivide tedious work or to fund-raise start-up companies and charities. It combines the efforts of numerous self-identified volunteers or part-time workers, where each contributor of their own initiative adds a small portion to the greater result. Crowdsourcing is distinguished from outsourcing in that the work comes from an undefined public rather than being commissioned from a specific, named group.

The word "crowdsourcing" was coined in 2006 and can apply to a wide range of activities. Crowdsourcing can involve division of labour for tedious tasks split to use crowd-based outsourcing, but it can also apply to specific requests, such as crowd voting, crowd funding, a broad-based competition, and a general search for answers, solutions, or even a missing person.  Simply defined, crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential labourers.

Quote: A design is not finished until somebody is using it – Brenda Laurel  

 
What about copying good ideas from different industries? Sometimes we think that our company has unique circumstances and we don’t have to emulate strategies that have proven successful in other industries. This could not be further from the truth. Many times, the best ideas are already out there; all we have to do is identify the ones that would work for our situation. Henry Ford got the idea for assembly line production for manufacturing cars from visiting slaughter houses that used a similar technique. Cattle and cars don’t seem to have much in common from the surface, but the strategy for efficiently delivering a final product to consumers is a great fit for both industries.  Explore what industries could provide radical change ideas for your company?


Get out there and just do it!

Start with a problem!

Posted by Doshti.
Reference :




No comments: