How do you move from gut feeling to evidence in the innovation process? ?? Issue #7
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During economic uncertainty, cutting innovation may seem like a logical step.?
However, concentrating on your day-to-day business and short-term battles, you often lose ground to competitors.
As we’ve discussed in this editorial, the key to thriving in the digital space today is continuous experimentation – you innovate in cycles moving quickly to adjust to change in the market or drive change.?
Can you move forward in your digital acceleration journey despite low-stakeholder buy-in or a tight budget??
Yes, if you de-risk your project. Here’s one way to do it.
How do you move from gut feeling to evidence in the innovation process?
Today’s answer is delivered by Jinder Kang , Innovation Consultancy Lead at Netguru
There are multiple paths to continuous innovation, such as design thinking or a scientific (or lean) approach. The right one for your business depends on your level of knowledge of the problem or challenge you’re trying to solve.
Whichever path you choose,?de-risking it relies heavily on?validation .??
We have a mantra at Netguru:?“Build the right thing before building it right.”?Thus, a key aim of our Product Validation Services (PVS) is to achieve a high level of confidence in an idea before moving forward.
The exact validation route we use will vary, but generally, we look at several aspects:?
?? Strategic fit?– Does the product align with the company’s corporate identity and strategic direction? And does it have leadership support?
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?? Opportunity area?– Do we have a clear understanding of our critical customer segments, what user problems we’re solving, and our value proposition??
?? Desirability?– Do people want the product? Does it directly solve users’ problems? And have we identified the optimum channels to reach our customer segments?
?? Feasibility?– Can we do it? Do we have the right technologies, resources, and capabilities to successfully deliver the value proposition?
?? Viability?– Should we do it? Have we defined the financial potential or benefit, revenue streams, and costs?
?? Adaptability?– Is the product well positioned and adaptable in terms of key trends and market, industry, and macroeconomic forces?
I find that clients often have an excellent grasp of their known knowns and known unknowns, but naturally, the world is full of unknown unknowns, and it’s our job to fill in those gaps.
Doing this not only allows us to assess if you should go ahead with a project but also whether there’s a better opportunity that could bring you more success. For example, a common mistake companies make is scaling at the wrong time. Validation lets us check if a pivot would result in a better opportunity, before scaling in the wrong direction.
By completing validation research and creating effective feedback loops, you’re able to better understand and serve the market, even as it changes.?
You also gain strong evidence to back your ideas. De-risking is a crucial aspect of innovation, although it’s important to recognize that – unfortunately –?it’s impossible to eliminate risk entirely.
Instead, the goal is to:
That’s it. As usual, if you’ve got any questions or reflections, let us know. Until next time!