Is Innovation Holding Us Back?

Previously on The 100-Year Product...

• Origins of The 100-Year Product (Part 1,?Part 2)
• The More Personal A Product Is, The More Universal Its Appeal.

Storytime...

After half a decade of working with companies, entrepreneurs, and leaders to bring new, innovative products and services to market, forming and sharing an opinion on innovation in public forums, I wondered when and why people (including those at the helm of it) started reacting negatively to it, or words closely related to it for that matter like disruption *cue the eye rolls*.

I found myself questioning what innovation means, looks like, and how it evolves. Is innovation a process, a method, a mindset, a desire to defiantly break the status quo, an amalgamation of several disciplines, a freedom to fail and experiment afforded to a small subset of society, a simple adjective we've overintellectualized or is it all or none of the above?

Public discourse on innovation frequently paints a picture of innovation being a (buzz)word that is overstated yet ambiguous. The irony is that I chose to do a specialized Master's in integrated innovation at Carnegie Mellon despite fully knowing about innovation's mixed reputation and that many would ask me questions like "What does integrated innovation really mean?", "What is its relevance?", "What does the curriculum entail?", "What career outcome are you hoping for?" among other loaded questions my MBA classmates next door in the business school were not as routinely confronted with.

That said, if innovation is ambiguous, surely there are unrealized opportunities and I wanted to advance my understanding and application of it. Given my interest in decoding innovation, as my 100-Year product study progressed, I hoped that my research would reveal findings or insights on innovation's role or influence (or lack of) on how we interact with and perceive the products/services that surround us and are imprinted in our hearts and minds...and it did.

Here's what I learned...

"An invention is usually the original thing, while an innovation is an invention that is applied in a way that causes a change in behavior or interactions” - Bill Walker, Wired

"Innovation" and "invention" are used interchangeably yet are far from interchangeable. The iPhone was repeatedly described as lovable, helpful, unforgettable, and inventive product among survey respondents, interviewees, and technologists involved in my study. We often mistake the iPhone as an invention when essential cellular technologies and cell phones had long preceded its conception. What interested me the most in what respondents shared was how the first or early generation(s) of a product they use had the most profound emotional impact and rate of recall compared to the ones that followed.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that 100-Year products are the first products launched in a specific context. Instead, 100-Year products are viewed and experienced as first-of-their-kind, inventive experiences with significant benefits gained, making a user's life or context of use better in a way unmatched by prior products. The level of product lovability positively correlates to the perceived benefits gained (benefits that can take many forms, as we will go on to see).

The agile manifesto in product management emphasizes striving for incremental and iterative value through each execution cycle (resulting in innovations). 100-Year product teams focus on giant leaps of total value (resulting in inventive experiences).

Remember, we are talking about significant product value, not value in the form of minor product updates or improvements. This may mean that 100-Year product teams focus on solving the big, lofty problems in nascent areas within an organization's context that are not being addressed today, fundamentally disrupting a process.

It is worth acknowledging that creating and releasing enormous value into the lives of consumers/users takes time (potentially years of effort) and may be felt not even over the course of but after/at the completion of several releases. In many ways, it's a combination of agile and waterfall; coincidentally, the more successful innovation (and I use both those terms lightly now) teams I've worked with are agile in theory/philosophy and waterfall in practice, harmoniously marrying both. Either way, it is important to note that not all products released or improved can or should be considered 100-Year products. In other words, it is and should not be every team's responsibility to build 100-Year products.

We view the first generation of the iPhone as an inventive experience compared to the series of releases following it because the first generation had the most considerable leap of value that survey respondents (primarily millennials) felt and experienced in a big way. As we now know, many years later, new versions of the iPhone change our behaviors and interactions only marginally.

While we may still love it, it may not be the version we consider most lovable and memorable upon reflection, which led me to another key and related insight. Product lovability and memorability have much to do with retrospective inspection and analysis, true to human nature. In retrospect, we value and appreciate things (especially extraordinary versus mundane moments/emotional stimuli). Look at LCG Auctions, where an unopened 2007 iPhone is expected to go for $50,000 or more. More on this later!

As a product manager working on an ambitious innovation team, currently, in the weeds creating and releasing enormous amounts of value for end users after years of incremental updates/improvements, I wondered if it is innovation we're after. Or an inventive experience? One that our users will love, use and remember for the years to come. Users experience and make sense of product value differently from the way, timing, and frequency in which product teams release value in execution cycles. The opportunity to work on 100-Year products is few and far between. I consider it one of the few opportunities of a lifetime.

??How do you feel about invention, inventive experiences & innovation? If you work in product, how would you categorize your team? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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