Hey, happy Monday,
Have you also stopped using Post-it notes since your quarantine?
I realized that the Post-it notes I had bought are all still there in the office. Between Miro and Google Presentation, I didn’t miss them. A colored rectangle on the screen is a more than sufficient representation of it especially when the advantage of being able to stick it everywhere is no longer a real advantage, what matters is that everyone in the meeting can write and quickly share an idea.
By the way, on Medium, 2 years ago, I wrote an article on how to do a workshop just with Skype and Google Presentation, it is still going great, in fact since we are all at home the visits have obviously increased. Here is the link and you can also find an updated template that you can download and use if freely if you like.
Why did I write it? For two reasons. The first is because software like Miro or Mural, like so many others, are often not authorized by the IT of the organizations I work with. The second and is that we easily blame the tools when the result of what we do is not satisfactory. More often, however, the problem is in process, skills or motivation.
The fact is that I am convinced that innovation is already present in the company.
There is no need to keep looking outside. It just needs to be brought out.
For example, more than 50 years ago, a certain Spencer Silver who worked at 3M was looking for a super strong adhesive, failed. He invented one that would instead stick very little and leave no marks. The company did not know what to do with it.
About 6 years later, Arthur Fry was losing patience in carrying the sign between his scores. Since he had been to a Spencer seminar, he remembered this weak adhesive and decided to use it on slips of paper.
He invented what we now call Post-it notes.
3M had innovation in house. It didn’t set out there to create that particular product. It just put out information from a failed experiment.
So innovation is a matter of ?
Nope.
Innovation is what happens when you want to change the future.
Innovation is not the job of an R&D department, or a group of people with Macs.
It is the whole organization that must be able to innovate, everywhere, independently.
Now for example, he must know how to find innovative ways to talk to clients, sign documents, run meetings, and finish the project.
For managers today it is vital to quickly understand what is not working and support what is working. And to simplify the job, my advice is to go after three areas: People, Processes and Products.
If you have not already done so, again I have made available to you the STRTGY Maturity Index (direct link) with instructions for using it.
Innovation vs. Optimization
We often confuseinnovation withoptimization. But these two effects are different and happen when people answer two completely different questions.
Those who tend toward optimization ask, “How can I make [xyz] more efficient?”
Those who tend toward innovation ask, “How can I make [xyz] more effective?”
There is a need for the right mix. As the organization steadily improves because it reduces waste in repeatedly serving the same products to customers, someone else in the company will have to deal with making those products, and the company itself in general, relevant in the marketplace tomorrow as well, trying to envision the future.
Today, companies put more resources into supporting bureaucracy than into finding new problems to solve.
That’s why I’m sure you’ll have a document in your email outlining the work-from-home policy as I’m sure it’s not as clear to you who in your company has to innovate, who’s allowed to do it, and how to justify the time spent…
It is no longer the time for management to protect stability.
Now is the time to lead the entire organization to rethink what is possible for its customers with data and technology that enable minimized risk, ultra-low marginal costs, scalability and speed.
3 low-risk ways to innovate
1. Make competitors pay for your R&D
Facebook is the wizard of this technique. It never invents anything new. It is exceptionally good at copying and integrating rival experiences.
This month alone puts two products on the market with clear competitive references:
Rooms. A video chat for up to 50 people that can be accessed from any product “by Facebook” as well as from a portal and, most importantly, to anyone in possession of the link. Here’s Zuck introducing Messenger Rooms
Hobbies. It takes obvious inspiration from Pinterest and is an app for organizing the content of those engaged in a particular hobby with the ability to track progress. Techcruch’s article
What can you copy from a competitor, or from a player in another industry that nevertheless has a delivery model that can be useful for you?
Of all the options, what can you afford to do at the lowest possible cost, with the skills of your team and the technology at your disposal?
2. Turn your customers’ input into features
It is the basis of Design Thinking, and I teach it in all my courses.
Here’s what you can do quickly and inexpensively, in that order:
Segment customers and identify low-end users and power-users.
Do a 10-question interview, or collect the top-10 requests to your customer care from the day of lockdown.
Create a roadmap by prioritizing inputs on an impact/effort scale.
Launch the first one as early as this Friday and measure the result next week.
3. Upcycle idea
Fleming was searching for the “miracle medicine,” found “only” penicillin.
Percy Spencer was conducting radar experiments but the candy in his pocket was constantly melting. He invented the microwave oven.
Hopps, an electrical engineer, conducted experiments on hypothermia and invented the peacemaker.
Along with the Post-it notes I told you about at the beginning, these products did not come about by will but by mistake.
Can you access the knowledge base that contains all the company’s old projects?
Can you organize a demo-day of the best failed projects in the past 5 years?
Which of these were too ambitious, too expensive, technologically complex that would make sense to implement today?
I help you
These three ways are examples, albeit simple, capable of unlocking the innovative potential in the people of our organizations.
If you need to understand more and contextualize about your company, how Design, Business and Technology can help you create your new competitive advantage, feel free to reply to this email. I read and respond to everyone personally.
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
