Greetings!
I recently read Kevin McFarthing's excellent essay arguing for the merits of incremental innovation: http://www.innovationfixer.co.uk/content/lets-hear-it-incremental-innovation.While Kevin wasn't arguing against disruptive innovation, he did make a sound argument that (I'll use a sports analogy) a series of "singles" can contribute to scoring runs and putting points up on the business scoreboard...while still contributing positively to customer experience.
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There are few words more discouraging to a new product developer than hearing a consumer focus group panelist utter " You could take it camping" in response to the moderator's request for concept likes. With rare exceptions, these words doom a fledging concept to the proverbial scrap heap...sometimes prematurely or even avoidably.
Curious to learn more? Read on, dear friends.
How would you react if one day this coming week, you learned that a competitor had just introduced an innovation that largely rendered your company's current core offering obsolete?
Well, if you work for online sensation Vine, that pretty much happened to you last week. For the rest of us, there are some useful lessons to be learned.
Curious to learn more? Read on, dear friends.
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One of the more satisfying problem solving approaches employed in the innovation game is to reapply technology developed for a particular use in a novel way.
Curious to learn more? Read on, dear friends...
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In the B2B world, it is rare to find a provider that can radically increase customer profitability without also necessitating (negative) tradeoffs. Meet Bioformix.
Curious to learn more? Read on, dear friends...
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In a few days, my daughter Caroline, will be graduating from high school and in the Fall she will begin her college experience at The Ohio State University. While attending an academic achievement assembly this week, the audience heard enlightening remarks delivered by my daughter's school system Superintendent, Dan Good. His message was powerful and relevant for all in attendance.
Curious to learn more? Read on, dear friends...
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In new product development, technologies are typically assessed relative to one another on their technical merits, with no real consideration given to the "story" which may also differentiate them. Is this wise?
Curious to learn more? Read on, dear friends...
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In the field of therapeutic psoriasis treatments, current treatment options have decided negatives. Now, there's a potential game changer being developed...
Curious to learn more? Read on, dear friends...
LinkedIn fortune tellers may be able to accurately predict a connection's future (and possibly, their present) by reading the signals that we send via our Linkedin dashboards. There are some common signs that some of us inadvertently transmit that can invite speculation regarding our intentions, among even casual observers.
As marketers, it's always a good idea to remind ourselves that we don't know what consumers want and need better than they do. Further, it's useful to recall that insight is typically at the heart of innovation. It took a phone call with my 85 year old mother the other week to reinforce these messages.
In a recent survey by leadership development and training company Fierce Inc., 86 percent of respondents said that ineffective communication or lack of collaboration was to blame for workplace failures. (Source: Rieva Lesonsky) This doesn't surprise me at all. These failures can have myriad causes. Experience tells me that the most likely contributors to failure are:
The starting point for any technology sourcing endeavor is articulation by Marketing of its Business Needs, which are subsequently translated by R&D into Technical Needs. This step makes the technology search mission clear (it should also describe the success criteria). In effect, it should set the stage so that if R&D finds what is sought, Marketing has tacitly agreed to "buy" it from them. However, what happens if the Need is ambiguous, or is subject to multiple interpretations? That, my friends, represents a moving target...which, as we all know, is much, much harder to successfully hit.