Tag Archives: design thinking

The best—and the worst—way of learning about market demand is to ask the customer

experimentation leads to innovation Want to know what customers want? Ask them, but don’t believe them; rather observe them in their environment.

It’s the best way because potential customers can answer this question better than any self-proclaimed marketing experts can with their fancy reports, focus groups and all.

It’s the worst because customers don’t really know what they want. They know what their problems are, what they like, and what they don’t need. But they don’t know what you can develop for them that they really want. Don’t believe them if they tell you; they have less imagination than you do.…

Everything is ripe for innovation

Jorge in Innovation

The titles of this post might seem a little simplistic, and to a certain degree it is because it isn’t that easy. But, let’s consider the following story:

Ten years ago, Diane Brown found herself in a dreary hospital room, shocked that this kind of bleak environment was supposed to help her get well. Using her art-world connections, she persuaded a few friends to liven up some of these walls. A decade later, RxART is a thriving nonprofit that brings the work of world-class artists to patients whose spirits are lifted by the presence of colorful, inspirational contemporary art in their daily lives. Since then, artists like Jeff Koons, Matthew Ritchie, Alexis Rockman and William Wegman have lent their expertise to hospitals across the country.

A hospital room designed to heal kids. How cool is that?!…

How do you source ideas for innovation out of customers?

Jorge in Innovation, Question-To-Innovate, Questions

How do you source ideas for innovation out of customers?

Phil McKinney asks: are customers a source of ideas for innovation?

Two years ago The Economist published a report where it indicated that by 2020 customers will replace R&D as the main source of new ideas. Well, apart from customers, there are many sources where companies can get ideas for innovation; partners, competitors, non-competing companies and employees.

Some of the most innovative ideas can come from customers themselves. But, you must involve them.…

3 criteria your business ideas must have for them to work

Jorge in Innovation

This is part three of the series on how to leave small thinking behind. In the first post, I showed you a simple technique for coming up with radical ideas. On the second part, I showed you how to evaluate ideas so they don’t fit into “me-too” territory. Here, I’ll tell you how to determine which ideas might work.

A short recap from part 1 and part 2:

In part 1 of this series I elaborated a little bit on how to shift from “me-too” thinking to “radical thinking” by taking your existing strategy and stretching it to an extreme, and scaling them back a little bit. This technique yields ideas that are impractical, super expensive and dangerous. But you can scale them back a little bit to make them doable.

In part 2, I showed you how to further filter those initial ideas by using an evaluation criteria of creativity, business, and people impact.

Great, but after you’ve developed a list of radical ideas how do you decide which ones to pursue?…

5 reasons why ethnography is not going to become mainstream anytime soon

Jorge in Innovation

It seems that since design thinking and lean startup methodologies have a “talk to potential customers to validate” component, it may seem that ethnography is becoming mainstream.

It isn’t.

In my opinion, of all the innovation techniques available to an innovation practitioner, entrepreneur, marketer or business leader none is more important than getting out on the field and observing people in their domains. And, we have ways to go before this ever becomes mainstream.…

Innovation posts of the week: How to think like an innovator

Jorge in Must reads of the week

Innovate on Purpose: Why innovation can’t be benchmarked by @ovoinnovation

Think Like an Innovator – HBR

Tackling Complexity and Wicked Problems with Design Thinking by @ralph_ohr & @tdebaillon

The Case for Competitive Collaboration – Core77

Six Bite-Sized Innovation Lessons From Ebay’s New Design Think Tank – FastCo Design

Innovation’s Nine Critical Success Factors – HBR

Innovation book review: Little Bets by @petersims

Jorge in Innovation, Strategy

Little Bets by Peter Sims

“The side that learns and adapts the fastest often prevails.” – General David Petraeus

You can’t mess with evolution. That’s the message I got from the book Little Bets by Peter Sims.

If you are well versed with the state of current innovation thinking, you will find that the main ideas are heavily influenced by design thinking. This is not a recipe book for design thinking. There are no how to’s. It’s strength lies in it’s synthesis of the main principles of experimental innovation. Today, more commonly known as design thinking.

It’s a well written and engaging book. I read Little Bets in a little over 6 hours. It’s a short read but entertaining read.

What stands out about the book is the distinctive stories and characters Mr. Sims uses to illustrate the main ideas. For example, how Chris Rock tests new jokes in small venues with small audiences before taking them to bigger events. This helps him tests and refine jokes that he knows will resonate with audiences at bigger events. The story of how Pixar’s Toy Story begun from little bets. How the the success of the U.S. Military’s ‘Surge Strategy’ is influenced by Design Thinking.…