There are no silos for innovation; that is it!
After saying that, I remember companies that used to create an innovation department or research and development (R & D) for taking new initiatives and discover things that could have some value. It seems a good idea at that time, but now the VUCA world shows that kind of approach isn’t good enough anymore. Instead, the R & D should be present in the whole company. Each department or business track should have a way of discovering new things. Innovation shouldn’t be the responsibility of just a few people. Otherwise, if I’m not part of the innovation department, why should I improve my process or deliverable tasks. Nowadays, this behavior is not acceptable anymore because everyone may contribute to new ideas.
Talking about building digital products, we should work very closely with our customers, understand their needs, get feedback from them, test new ideas, get feedback again, and keep going. Briefly, this is the way to reduce risks and avoid significant investments; moreover, we are talking about continuous improvement at the end of the day. I don’t believe that is a real innovation because sometimes the changes are not very significant, and this is more like a framework to keep going in the right way instead of a transformation. In other words, this is at least what you should do to keep improving your product.
Can we innovate a product forever?
No, we can’t. This answer sounds a little imposing, right? Yeah, I agree, but let’s start thinking about a specific product, for example, a pencil. It is incontestable that there are many improvements in the pencil since its construction began to carry out. The customer has been getting value from that till now. Think that we have the perfect pencil built by a company, the customer needs are being satisfied in the best way, and the company covered all the requirements. If the company is still not satisfied with its product and tries to do new things, these things could transform the product into another, and they could start to lose some customers. Maybe another idea is to create two products instead of one, and then you could reach a different customer profile.
The point here is to understand the business is not just one product; it can be many products. The customers are changing their behaviors all the time; there are also new generations with different needs, and the company must adapt to the market.
Start doing changes
Why are you trying to change something?
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Are you sure that you really understand the problem?
Do you have other people’s views?
These are good questions; think about it because this is the first step to make a good change. Try to go deep into the problem, talk more about the situation before start talking about the solution, and understand the whole issue, not a specific part of it.
Bring the problem up in a simple sentence that doesn’t point to a solution to talk to your team. Listen to a different point of view and do a brainstorm. Try to keep the conversation focused on the main problem, not in the subproblems that could be rising. When people start to disagree about a subject, please encourage them to create options and then encourage them to choose the best options to begin having an agreement.
This kind of approach used to be very tough because the people are used to starting thinking in the solution instead of effectively understanding the problem.
The changes are inevitable; we must embrace the chaos and learn to handle it. Think about that: If you are not changing things, you are not making continuous improvement.
Choosing the best solution
- Bring your team to do a brainstorm, be prepared to explain the problem, and be objective. Let them talk and discuss the idea; the more ideas, the better, even the crazy ideas.
- Choose the ideas that have more agreement and try to converge in just one view. Make some prototypes and validate them. This approach is essential because we should reduce the options to make it possible to implement and monitor. In other cases, it will take a long time to test these ideas.
- Provide an environment that allows people to bring new ideas and motivate them. Everyone is essential in this process, no matter what role you have. Also, talk with external people involved in the scenario, listen to their stories, and understand their needs.
You can find a structured format like the design sprint framework to do that; we can see many similarities. But the key here is the circular phases: talking with others, understanding the problem, prototype, testing the solutions, implementing, and monitoring.
Even if you do the whole process, there is a chance to fail. But don’t worry, this is part of innovation. Have you ever seen a perfect product that solves a problem? Probably yes, but until they reached the ideal solution, they had several attempts that failed before.
Leadership
I believe anyone can do innovation. I believe even more if there is leadership that encourages people to think this way. The person who cares about the problem and takes the initiative to do the change may not have a leadership position, but its behavior and attitudes are from a leader. These skills will help make the innovation happen because if you are committed and have a purpose defined, you will do what you can to get everything solved. From this, you will start to have followers that believe in your ideas.
Guess what! You are leading a transformation right now! Isn’t that amazing? Probably you didn’t see in that perspective before because you care about the situation and were trying to improve things and nothing more, but now the people are hopeful of moving forward, and they will help you.
My guess is: If you are not doing this, start doing right now, and your reward will come soon if you want, of course.
We could call the leader as a “problem finder” because it is a person who is always looking for a problem to solve. Usually, other people don’t do that. It is a curious behavior that separates the leader from others.
In summary
I believe there is no innovation without good leadership because innovation and leadership are complementary. I’m talking about the leader as a supporter having a purpose and providing the right environment that motivated people, not as a commander saying what to do or centralizing the decisions.
If you don’t have a leadership position, it’s ok; you can start looking for problems and making changes to solve them.