What Makes Innovation Work?
Did you know that Ford didn’t invent the first automobile? Nikolaus Otto from Germany built the first four-stroke gas engine and Karl Benz also from Germany integrated that engine in the first gas-powered car almost 30 years before Ford built the Model T.
Long before Edison was born an Italian inventor named Alessandro Volta generated the first lighted electrical current and Englishman Humphry Davy build the first electric lamp. 40 years before Edison sold his first commercial lightbulb, another Englishman, Warren de la Rue invented the first lightbulb.
The key distinction between these early inventors and those who commercialized the innovation is simple — the inventors were scientists, in love with their invention; but those who made the invention successful were businesspeople. They followed the money, looking for customer demand and created the most efficient way to meet that demand.
Want to learn how to turn your idea into a successful solution? Join me February 14, 2020 in a free webinar to explore the first phase of human-centered innovation: “But my mom likes it!” How to validate the desirability of your idea.
Find a Need and Execute, Execute, Execute
We always assume that Microsoft created the first operating system and Google the first search engine but in fact, these technology inventions were available a decade before they were successfully commercialized into the market leading solutions that we know, MS-DOS and Google Search. The difference? Microsoft and Google were focused on businesses first, technology second. They looked for a customer need and filled that need with a (often technologically inferior) commercial solution.
There are two things that these successful businesspeople had that the inventors did not:
- Clear customer need — they identified a clear need for a small subset of customers and focused their solution on that specific need.
- Execution — once they identified the customer/market fit from #1, they created systems that would allow them to consistently deliver that solution.
But here’s the thing. The inventors who are most passionate about solving real world problems are often the ones that don’t successfully deliver their solution. And yet, these are the people that I want most to help. You are the game changers; you just need to step up to also being commercialization rock stars.
Implementing a Human Centered Innovation
My antidote for those of you who want to change the world (or just change your office status quo) but aren’t getting any traction is something I call Human Centered Innovation (HCI). It creates a systematic approach to discovering that key user need and delivering a solution that meets that need. HCI is typically a 10–12 week learning and discovery process that explores the desirability, feasibility and viability of your idea.
If you want to learn more about how to make Human Centered Innovation work for you, join me on February 14th for a free webinar that focuses on the first phase, desirability: But my mom likes it! How to validate the desirability of your ideas. In the webinar, I will walk through the Explore Desirability phase of HCI and provide tools that will help you quickly apply this method to validating your idea with your users.
Thanks for helping to make the world a better place!
