Innovation 101: The "secret" elements of the Innovation process

First, there are no secrets, what I think, there is no awareness about how tackling innovation to successfully create something valuable, which could be named as "successful innovation".

There are hundreds of definitions of Innovation, I like one very much: "Innovation is a process of change that introduces value to something existing, could be a service, product, process, element, or any other thing."

🚀 Change, Value. Two magic words in this process.

Since I was 8, I wanted to be an inventor. I created tons of things, 90% trash. 10% useful! Keys there were: (1) try fast, (2) make it cheap, (3) learn from the trash. There is a 4th element, Creating Value. When we talk about 90% trash, we are talking about something useless for me and others. Lack of value becomes makes it trash. Since then, I have studied how to improve my creativity and innovation skills. And now I think I can share some takeaways from my experience, maybe, it's a shortcut to a novel innovation for some. Learning from others' mistakes was a good shortcut for me, I hope it's useful for you too.

I'm going to try describing a generic innovation process that applies to any method, such as Design Thinking, Problematic Thinking, Agile Innovation, and more. Methods apply to context and the problem you are trying to solve, but the process is almost always the same. After finishing some articles about the process, I'll share from my perspective a deep dive into those methods and how to apply them to corporate innovation, and also applicable to medium and small companies.

👉Innovation Process is simple, element by element:

(1) 🔎 Framing: find something you want to change. Something is stacked, bored, creates frustration? Innovation is usually triggered by something we need to change. Something that is not right or can be better. Framing is about finding, analyzing, researching, and writing about this "problem", "Issue", "frustration" or any other thing we would like to change.

👀 I will explain more about "Framing" and its tools in a separate article: "Innovation 101: 1 Framing."

(2) 📐 Defining: Now that we know something more about the problem, we need to define it. We need to understand everything about the problem such as emotions in our customers, frustrations, how the problem is being solved, and more. As much information about the problem, better.

"If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions". Albert Einstein

Well, understanding a problem is crucial to create a solution. It sounds obvious, but it is a common mistake.

👀 I will explain more about "Defining" and its tools in a separate article: "Innovation 101: 2 Defining."

(3) 💡 Ideate: So, we understand the problem, and these are the gorgeous 5 minutes Einstein was talking about. Ideas will come out, we need to focus the discussion on how to solve the problem, with the information we have. It is important during the ideation phase to avoid censuring others' ideas. It is about Quantity, not quality. Try to enrich ideas from others' ideas, think big and small, limitless, go crazy! We will have enough time later to find those ideas that are more feasible, viable, with less effort and more impact on the problem.

👀 I will explain more about "Ideate" and its tools in a separate article: "Innovation 101: 3 Ideate."

(4) 💇 Validate: Ok, we have some ideas about solving the problem. Now it is time to judge them. But do not worry. It is the most enriching exercise for an idea, to expose it to others. Tell the idea to family and friends, even better, to people you do not know. With open questions such as (1) "How do you solve this issue today?", (2) "Will you solve this issue using this solution (Your idea)?” and avoiding "Do you like my idea?". Compliments will fill our ego, and Critics will contribute to the idea. To its improvement. Embrace critics. We do not want to spend time and money building something people will criticize. Let them criticize our idea before any investment.

👀 I will explain more about "Validate" and its tools in a separate article: "Innovation 101: 4 Validate."

(5) 🔨 Iterate: After feedback, we will have to go back to step 1, 2, 3, until we reduced the number of critics and increased the number of compliments, something will never happen, that's why this part of the process it's called "Iterate". Get custom to it. It will be part of the business. Keep improving the solution. Starting the process, we will refine ideas, and after some iterations, we will be refining a solution to a problem, translated into a product, service, or any other form. After some iterations, we will possibly earn money with our solution, that's why iteration will be a crucial part of our business to make it sustainable.

👀 I will explain more about "Iteration" and its tools in a separate article: "Innovation 101: 5 Iteration."

(6) 🚀 Launch: Release something whenever you get at the end of the process. Innovation is about actioning too. In the first iteration, we could release something such as a prototype in the paperboard, but after some iterations, releases will contain new features of our products and/or services. And 🎊 🎉 Celebrate! Make a celebration because it's a huge milestone. You deserve it!

👀 I will explain more about "Launch" and its tools in a separate article: "Innovation 101: 6 Launch."

(7) 📏 Measure: To improve the solution, now we need to measure the impact. (1) Acceptance of the solution, (2) Detractions and satisfaction, (3) More feedback, (4) Indicators of which feature is better and which one we should get rid of. Are we really solving the problem now?

👀 I'll explain more about "Measure" and its tools in a separate article: "Innovation 101: 7 Measure"

Every week, I will release each part of the process with content, tools, and articles to read. The idea is to share the process and tools so anyone can implement it in 7 weeks.

Feel free to comment, suggest or ask if you have doubts.