How to Innovate - The Elusive Product-Market Fit

Innovation is the creating of something new. It’s doing something that no-one has ever done before. It’s trying to make the world a better place. Innovation is a creative job, something that doesn’t fit well in a course on innovation.

There is no rule book for innovation. There are, however, guidelines to follow, frameworks to copy. Getting innovation right will never be easy, else everyone would be doing it. And some of the most innovative ideas, from the invention of the wheel to Pythagoras’ theorem, all seem trivial now, but were giant leaps forward when presented.

Innovation is the balancing act between making something incredibly new, and something that’s not so weird that no-one will ever use it. Innovation is asking people what they want, and then making something else (the thing they really wanted, but didn’t know about). And innovation is unique in every situation, something fluid and always evolving, never finished nor to be put in boxes.

Innovation come in three different levels. The first is characterized by familiarity, cornflakes with a new flavour. The second is uniqueness, combining the world of augmented reality (AR) and Pokémon. And the third level is defined by being far-out, brain-computer implants. Each innovation will fall somewhere along this spectrum. And there is a place for each of these levels, but I will argue that level 2, uniqueness, is where you want to be.

Level 1: Familiar

That new type of cornflakes, the next iteration of the iPhone, or the latest WordPress update. They are all examples of innovations. Engineers, designers, and scientists all had to come up with new ways of thinking, making a product that has never been made before.

At the same time the product feels familiar. The newest iPhone isn’t a perfect circle, the updated cornflakes won’t replace all carbs with fats. People know how to use a familiar innovation, and there is a definitive market for such products.

This also means the competition is on your heels, your innovation might be reverse-engineered within years, maybe even months. Competing with familiar innovations is about execution, being the fastest the mostest.

With familiar innovation comes high demand and high competition.

Level 2: Unique

An electric car that works like it should (Tesla Model S/3), the very first iPhone, or wheels on your luggage. It’s something that, up to that point, has never been done before. With unique innovations you take together ideas from different fields and make a leap forward by combining them.

Before 1970! everyone was carrying, hoisting, or pulling their luggage around. From busy business travellers to whole families that we’re going on vacation. Sometimes people put their luggage in a cart, to carry it from the belt to a taxi. But never did anyone try and put wheels on the luggage itself. Mr. Sadow changed that, and with the power of hindsight, isn’t weird that someone else didn’t invent it earlier.

Competition in this space is slower, you will have the time to define a market before others enter. And unique innovations require you to think outside the box, something that the competition might not be able to do.

Unique innovations are able to generate high demand in a market of low competition.

Level 3: Far-out

A VR headset in the 80’s, a tablet before there was a use-case (Newton), or brain-computer interfaces. These innovations are ahead of their time, they represent a world where a fundamental change has passed, a world that most people can’t conceive of yet.

Right when computers were becoming a thing, Apple introduced the Newton. It was the iPad before there was such a thing. You could use touch to operate it, there were useful programs, but no-one was buying them. The innovation was too far out there, people didn’t know why to use it.

Without a market there is also little use for competition. Your idea might be unique, but also ahead of it’s time. That’s why companies like 3M are trying many different far-out innovations, just to see if one has a market, if one can be considered a unique innovation.

Far-out innovations are ahead of their time and have low demand and low competition.

Queal and WundrBar

With Queal we’ve made a complete meal in a shake. Something that takes away the hassle of preparing food, whilst still being utmost nutritious. And there is a market for it, but is it the far-out people or could it be categorized as unique.

The difficulty with our product is that the idea is far-out, but the basis of the product is unique (at most). Drinking your food, wow that’s something from science fiction (or the hospital). Combining oats, whey protein, soy, and more at the same time seems trivial (but believe me, it isn’t).

With the WundrBar we’re going to balance these two ideas in a better way. It’s unique in composition, complete in nutrition. And it’s not too far-out, because who hasn’t eaten a bar recently these days.

It’s our answer to helping people eat healthier without any hassle. And I hope you will find it as amazing, unique and wunderbar as I think it is.

Get your WundrBars on https://wundr.bar