What problem does technology solve for?

'Adapt or die', 'Survival of the most techno- savvy', 'Go tech or go home' amongst others have been the buzz phrases since the technological revolution. Companies such as Tesla, Amazon, Netflix, FNB and Discovery have introduced sexy technologies into the market place placing a colossal amount of pressure on all other companies to invent the ‘next big thing’. Because we live in a world where technology dominates the workplace, integrating the two must become a priority for organisations. Humans and technology must unite, however the question remains who will be a slave to whom?

Innovation is the chief architect in any technological strategy but what does innovation mean? Unilever SA defines Innovation as ‘a creation of great new products that consumers love constructing the breakthroughs that will build a brighter future.’ Tom Freston defined innovation as ‘taking two things that exist and putting them together in a new way’.  I personally have defined innovation as, ‘novel approaches in product/ service delivery as well as more effective and efficient ways in product/ service delivery’. Buzzwords associated with innovation include, ‘idea generation’, ‘digital disruption’, ‘transformation’, and so forth. The list is grand. The list may be relevant. But what does this list mean to the organisation and more importantly the consumer? Why are organisations innovating?  Are they simply innovating for the sake of innovating? Are they innovating due to pressure from their peers to innovate? Without a human problem to solve for innovation simply becomes a series of jargon.

Four key questions which clarify why we need to innovate are;

1. What is technology solving for?
2. What is the role of innovation in solving the problem statement?
3. What is the role of humans in the solution?
4. In order to understand the role of innovation one needs to understand the driving force behind and the context to which it is applied.

Simplicity vs. Complexity:

Are sexy technological innovations those that push for the widgets, complex thingamajigs, and thingamabobs? We don’t even know what they are however we are told that they are innovative and relevant. But what do these innovations mean for the consumer? If innovations are supposed to solve problems then, are the additional features on, say your mobile device innovative even though they are marketed that way.

For example, for me the most innovative aspects of my phone are still the ability to connect with people even when I am not within proximity to them. Secondary innovations would be the ability to make use my phone as a camera and the GPS functionality. These solve a problem simply and effectively. They are therefore innovative. However, additional complex features on my phone such as Siri, finger recognition, garageband, iMovie, pages, iTunesU are not innovative TO ME because they are not solving for any problems for me. How can they be innovative to me if I don’t benefit from them? (Please NOTE that I am not saying that these are not innovative, I am saying that their functionality yields zero marginal value to me and therefore they are not innovative to me although they are marketed that way). It is therefore clear that innovations start with people and their needs. It is also clear that innovation does not lie in the complexity of the product rather the simplicity of a product. There needs to be a mind shift from producing sexy irrelevant innovations to practical problem solving innovation.

Innovations need to have a problem solving, people centered approach to it in order to benefit consumers.  According to Ideo.org, Human Centred design (HCD) is defined as "a creative approach to problem solving. It is a process that starts with the people you're designing for and ends with new customised solutions to suit their needs. HCD is about building a deep empathy with the people you're designing for; generating tons of ideas; building a bunch of prototypes; sharing what you've made with the people you're designing for; and eventually putting your innovative new solution out in the world."

HCD is in essence an innovative approach to designing relevant products and solutions for your customer. We are seeing a movement away from the 'product push' strategy of marketers towards a 'customer demand pull' strategy. HCD is about involving the customer in the design process through a process of co-creation and developing a product with your customers input. It is about developing customer insight before creating a product or service and knowing your customer wants, needs and desires and also knowing what they DO NOT want, need and desire.

A ‘SEXY TECHNOLOGY’ MEANS NOTHING TO NO-ONE IF THEY CANNOT BENEFIT FROM IT.

Rwanda, a small country in Africa with a very large rural population of approximately 72% also has a problem with accessibility to the rural villages. This is primarily due to a very robust topography and little infrastructure.  Because these villages carry a bulk of the population there are numerous social infrastructures such as hospitals located there and at times of extreme emergencies find it very difficult to access the right medical solutions such as ‘blood donations’ in time. As a result many people die. Zipline is an innovation that uses drone technologies to deliver medical aid to rural based hospitals bringing down delivery time from hours to minutes.

• Problem Statement: - How do we deliver medical care to inaccessible locations ? – This was a real problem.
• Solution: Use of alternative delivery methods that are not constrained by traffic or infrastructure.

ZIPLINE IS AN INNOVATION IT ADDRESSES A REAL HUMAN NEED

Zipline’s ability of addressing a human need effectively is transforming the health sector in Rwanda. This is what is termed needs based transformation and that is what innovation should be about.

With the rise in mobile technology the large screen is being replaced with the small screen. Many of ‘us’ are increasingly using mobile devices to communicate (on and off line) to access media, (think Netflix, Youtube, podcasts, banking etc.…) Irrespective of this obvious change why is it that 80% spend on advertising is still on television. This is a legacy based problem and the resistance to change will result in revenue leakage especially because organisations are not reaching their customers. Customers have moved onto new engagement platforms and organisations need to follow them to those platforms. Should you wish to reach your customer you need to serve them where they are and not where they used to be. A simple concept such as redirecting advertising spend from television to mobile is also considered to be innovative.

‘God’ created man and man created technology. That is the world that we live in in 2019. We need to find a way to integrate man and technology in a system / hierarchy that prioritises the needs of the man Remember innovation is about people.  People (who hold economic dominance and money does make the world go round) will only buy into innovations that they benefit from. ‘God’ created man with the intention to serve God and that approach should follow suit with technology. Man should not be a slave to technology. Innovation should be designed to empower individuals, communities, cities and countries and therefore technology should become a means to preserve humanity and technology needs to be the solution that services the needs of mankind.