Engineering for Innovation
Many engineers today are trained and rewarded for quickly solving problems. They work in silos and pump out fast answers to challenges put before them. They can certainly produce elegant solutions, but without market input this style of engineering seldom generates truly innovative solutions which will change the future. Engineering for innovation is fundamentally different than solving problems, and starts with questions.
Innovation’s answer to a problem first puts the problem in the context of its target market forces. A company focused on innovation begins each assignment with a long list of questions. The innovative engineering team wants to know if the problem they’re solving matters to the market. And they want to know if the market matters to their company.
- What is the market size? Is it growing?
- What are the market trends?
- How is the problem solved today?
- What is the size and cost of today’s solution?
- How is the target application changing?
- Are there other application problems that can be solved simultaneously?
- Who is the competition?
- What are the customers’ pain points?
- And on and on….
Ultimately the solution’s success will be determined by how well the team understands their market. A successful solution takes yesterday and tomorrow into account, incorporates customer feedback, and does it all quickly and cost effectively.
Companies that continue to just solve problems will be displaced by those that focus on understanding their market first prior to diving into their work. These companies will consistently surprise us with innovative solutions. They will take risks to put them at the forefront of the market. These innovative companies will change their markets, and the world.
Claims Specialist at State Farm ?
9 年My husband is looking for electrical engineer in the Denton TX area
Cooking something interesting. Ex : Product Leader @ Microsoft | Leadership at the intersection of People, Product, and Engineering | Enterprise, Startups
10 年I agree with the post (and with Qi and John). Having led Engineering teams before, I have seen marked improvements in productivity and quality if the engineers are exposed to the true customer problems. Makes so much sense to connect the daily work of the engineers to the end result.
Founder & CEO at Ennocad Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.
10 年Nicely said. Enginners shall also be empowered by the right organization structure and corporate culture to innovate. Allowing engineers to directly work with customers to understand market requirements and trends is key to produce innovations with great impact.
Semiconductor Evangelist
10 年A good summary. Having led engineering teams over the years it is imperative that the development team has an unfiltered and uncluttered view of the customer perspective. This is best achieved if the design team can experience customer challanges directly. I recall arranging for a team I managed to work directly in the industry for which our innovation was targeted on a temporary basis. The approach and ultimately the product itself deviated radically from the product originally described in the marketing specification. The result put one of our competitirs out of business because every nuiance of the product was steeped in customer insight.
Community Contributor
10 年Nicely said. Often we limit our sphere of thinking to boundaries someone less visionary has put before us. In our society its deemed risky to go beyond these boundaries but in most cases history has proven it's more risky not to.