Innovation Strategies

Innovation Strategies
When talking about Innovation Strategies, I mean by how do we get new products and services implemented in our companies.
How do we come up with new ideas,
How do we validate new ideas and make sure it makes sense.
This concept is not for design design teams or just senior management but critical for your engineers and middle management.



1. Customer Shadowing
- Understand client work requirements, why are they doing certain items, what are they trying to accomplish those tasks.
- Understand how they are going about doing it. Eg - What are their work flows.
- Identify areas of improvement, this could be both product and service oriented improvement.
- Product oriented improvements are basically either productivity improvements, new data collection mechanisms and archival mechanisms. application of technology .
- Service Oriented improvements are new services your company can offer in a cost effective manner such that can improve client
[ Most importantly sales people get involved in this innovation process because they provide market intelligence. This type of innovation is very incremental. This has maximum payback since you are not venturing into the unknown space]


2. Rapid Prototyping

- Prototype new ideas continuously
- Implementing by Experimenting
- Prototypes should be small
-Prototypes should be easy to produce
[This innovation has a lot of risk and payback because you are venturing into the unknown. Prototyping minimizes risk but still this innovation method can be used to leap frog the competition.]



3. Pattern matching other Industries
- Study successful companies in other industries
-Understand their processes and produucts.
- Find if there are patterns you can emulate in your industry.
[This is the most overlooked part of innovation circle, when we do Pattern matching the ideas generated already are in place in other industries and they work. What you will have to do is to bring them over and vet them properly to make sure they fit.]