Despite all you read, innovation is really quite simple.
It consists of 5 key steps:
1. Create a range of workable concepts (i.e create, enhance and evaluate your raw ideas).
2. Test these as quickly and as cheaply as you can.
3. Measure what happens.
4. Learn from how consumers or users react to your new product, service, solution or concept and
5. Share this learning around the organisation, so that you don’t keep repeating your mistakes and others may learn from your work.
And most importantly, action these five steps (or cycle) faster than your competitors, faster than you have ever done it before and faster than customers expect it.
As I said, it is simple really.
Yet when leaders ask me how to enhance their innovation efforts I direct them to this cycle and ask them how are they at each of these five steps (and the connections between these).
Over many years of asking this question, do you know the one area they say they are very good at?
Measurement.
That’s right.
Management today is all about measuring things.
To be sure, this is important but what about the other four steps?
Most leaders admit that their team or business is not good at creating new ideas (perhaps not allowed to or encouraged to?), nor can they test these concepts quickly.
Nor it seems, are they adept at learning from their actions and certainly don’t share this learning across the different functions or teams across the organisation.
It is no wonder that most organisations struggle with innovation.
You need all five steps completed at lightning pace to thrive today.
Ask yourself, what steps in this innovation process are your brand or business good at?
If you have answered this question honestly then you are half-way towards improving your innovation results.