Innovation is not a one-size-fits-all process. It requires a deep understanding of the customers, markets, and cultures that you are targeting. If you want to succeed in working abroad and developing innovative solutions for a specific country, you need to align your innovation strategy with customer needs. Here are some tips on how to do that.
Before you start brainstorming ideas, you need to research the local context of the country you are working in. What are the main challenges, opportunities, trends, and preferences of the customers there? How do they differ from your home market or other markets you are familiar with? What are the legal, regulatory, social, and environmental factors that affect your innovation potential? You can use various methods to gather this information, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, or secondary sources.
Before you start brainstorming ideas, you need to research the market by analyzing your competitors. Find out who they are through customer research data, reviews, or online research. And then study their branding and marketing strategy. Define what their unique value proposition is, what features they’re offering, and how they market the products or services. This will allow you to test your assumptions about your business model and adjust it based on the insights you gather from your market research validation phase.
Based on your research, you need to adapt your value proposition to the customer needs in the specific country. A value proposition is a statement that summarizes how your innovation solves a customer problem, delivers a benefit, or creates value. It should be clear, concise, and compelling. You need to consider how your innovation fits the customer segment, the problem or need, the solution or benefit, and the competitive advantage. You may need to modify your product or service features, design, pricing, distribution, or communication to match the customer expectations and preferences.
Once you have a value proposition, you need to test and validate your assumptions with real customers in the specific country. You can use various tools and techniques to do this, such as prototypes, minimum viable products, experiments, or feedback loops. The goal is to learn from the customer reactions, feedback, and behavior, and to measure the key indicators of your innovation performance, such as customer satisfaction, retention, acquisition, or revenue. You need to be open to feedback, willing to learn, and ready to iterate or pivot based on the results.
Another way to align your innovation strategy with customer needs in a specific country is to collaborate with local partners who have relevant expertise, experience, or access to the market. You can leverage their knowledge, network, or resources to improve your innovation process and outcome. You can also learn from their best practices, insights, or challenges. You can collaborate with various types of partners, such as suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors, universities, or government agencies.
It seems obvious that when exporting & implementing innovative solutions across country boundaries, you will benefit from having a local partner (who may be the customer) so that the business case and potentially the solution itself can be modified in terms of its uses cases and language support. But recognize that in general some countries are more open to doing things first, while others will prefer only proven solutions. Also recognize that in some countries- decision making is done by team agreement, while others require a more individual oriented pitch. Finally, if the target workforce is highly unionized, you need guidance on how & when to most productively engage with that group.
Finally, you need to cultivate a global mindset to align your innovation strategy with customer needs in a specific country. A global mindset is the ability to appreciate and adapt to different cultures, perspectives, and contexts. It helps you to overcome biases, stereotypes, or assumptions that may hinder your innovation potential. You can develop a global mindset by learning about the history, culture, values, and norms of the country you are working in, by communicating effectively and respectfully with the local customers and partners, and by embracing diversity and inclusion in your innovation team.