Innovation leads people to think of something very big, extravagant, advanced but innovation expert, Greg Satell puts it very simply, “innovation is fundamentally about solving problems”. It’s as simple as that. What makes innovation so simple and yet so unique? It’s all in the way you approach innovation.
These are 5 simple steps you need to take to pursue innovation:
- Identify Opportunity: Is there is a common-man problem you think you can solve with a simple idea? understand the problem in its entirety and the stakeholders of that problem-who or what is causing it, who or what is affected by it. Always, the solution is one but ideas are many. Make a list of possible ideas which could offer the solution. Look at each of them from different angles, you discover more possibilities.
- Pick Your Best Ideas: Now you have ideas lined, all you have to do is start prioritizing your ideas. Which idea hits the nail on the head or makes easy bait to nab the problem at hand? From say 10 ideas come down to 3 of them which you think is worth more digging, more refining and more testing. Like any science experiment test these as your hypotheses.
- Test Your Potential Innovation: Just like your solution, keep your testing simple & cost-effective. Use basic drawings or simple paper prototypes which users can interact with and you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. These tests should be sufficient for you to understand what minimal tweak you need to make to improve the impact of the solution. Ascend to a more complicated use case scenarios where more users can test it.
- Include Other Stakeholders: The more you include people who can help you or people who’ll be impacted by your innovation, the more inclusive your innovation turns out. So all the angles you discovered while you explored your opportunity at Step 1, should be covered while you explore its solution. The stakeholders will be able to tell you if this solution solves their respective problems.
- Learn From Your Experience: Success and failure are a part of life; and innovation is something which requires conviction, patience and determination. If your innovation fails, but you still believe in it, get up rub the dust off and start again!
