Innovation is about getting the right ideas to market quickly.

They don't need to be perfect, but they need to be correct enough to begin to build momentum. I achieve this by keeping the customer central to the idea. Once you understand the customer's needs, the rest begins to fall into place rapidly.

Process

My recipe for innovation success is rooted in the best elements of design thinking approaches. In order to innovate successfully, teams must always start with the customer as the center of the equation. Applying empathetic understanding and astute analysis of competitive conditions provides a roadmap for success. Finally, serious play - ideally experienced in workshop formats as a flow state - drives ideas forward.

My process allows for individuals to generate initial ideas but I rapidly pivot to small agile team-based experiences to bring perspective and depth. These teams work to provide important details and context to the most highly-prioritized ideas.

As the most realistic ideas rise to the top, I encourage teams to rapidly define a minimum testable concept that they can quickly produce and get in front of their customers. This pilot stage is key and it requires teams to be ruthless in their pursuit of simplification. This represents the zero-one transition: going from zero customers to one customer to test the initial idea.

Once this is achieved, rapid feedback loops provide the team with details for expansion and scaling. Each detail or feature is prioritized and the team engages in development and release execution.

Outcomes

Following this process has resulted in innovation portfolios that can be prioritized and implemented.

The earliest outcomes are well-articulated ideas based in reality which are groomed and expanded based on perceived business value.

The best outcomes happen when teams are able to get their minimum testable ideas into the hands of their customers quickly in order to start gathering feedback. This actually saves development time and money as revenue can begin to be realized quickly as additional features are added or existing features are expanded.

This approach also provides key information and insight into change management activities since the team has first-hand insight into the first user experience. Change management happens as the product is being developed, not as an afterthought.

I have applied this approach to develop many new services and digital tools noted elsewhere in my portfolio.