What makes business innovation successful? (Hint: it’s not choosing the idea that you like the best)
It’s no secret that the business world is in a state of flux. From pandemic-triggered shifts in consumer spending to geopolitical instability causing supply chain and inflation issues, it’s been years since we’ve experienced anything close to ‘business as usual’.
While the economic climate may be unpredictable, the response from businesses has been reassuringly familiar: “We need to innovate!” From mega-giants to tiny family operations, organisations are coming up with new ideas to set themselves up for future success.
Don’t get me wrong. Innovation is great, and fresh ideas are important. (One of the best parts of my job is facilitating workshops to brainstorm solutions to business problems.) But the reality is that it takes a lot more than just one or two bright ideas to transform an organisation.
Confused? Disheartened? Let me explain.
Bright ideas aren’t always feasible ideas
I once worked with an organisation that was transfixed by one idea. (Let’s call it building a self-service portal that would streamline several tasks, in an industry known for convoluted business processes.) Executives made bold claims about the offering, what it would mean for the organisation, and how it would change the face of their industry.
There was one tiny problem: the back end of the business couldn’t support the service. At all. A disconnect between the project team and employees on the ground, coupled with a lack of technical and service capabilities meant the project – based on a bright idea – was doomed.
This project, and others like it, fail because there’s more to innovation than implementing the best idea your team can think of. A desirable idea isn’t necessarily also feasible and viable.
The less glamorous parts of making innovation happen – from considering existing capabilities to understanding your organisation’s strategic roadmap – are also essential to get right.
Three lenses of innovation: a guide for testing ideas
At Arteri, we like to look at ideas through IDEO’s three lenses of innovation. It’s a helpful way to understand whether an idea is worth pursuing.
Desirability - What’s the unique value proposition? Do people want this product or service? Does it make sense for them?
Viability - Can we build a sustainable business? What has to be true for this business to work? What are the costs? How will you pay for it?
Feasibility - Does this work? Is it functionally possible in the foreseeable future?
(via https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/how-to-prototype-a-new-business )
The ‘most popular’ ideas don’t always survive this process. Oftentimes it’s the fourth- or fifth-best idea that ends up making the most sense for your business.
Turning ideas into action
We’ve established that it’s useful to test ideas through the three lenses of innovation. But what should happen next to ensure your desirable, viable and feasible idea becomes a reality?
Define the future state
Aligning business transformation to a future state is a critical part of the co-design process. Your idea might be to ‘build a self-service portal’; but your future state is probably more along the lines of ‘every customer should be able to submit an online application form in less than 30 minutes.’
Be clear and articulate when defining your future state so you can accurately measure success later.
2. Develop a strategic roadmap
There are a lot of bright ideas in the business world. The shortage? Strategic roadmaps that detail how these great ideas get executed in the back end.
A strategic roadmap should answer questions like:
What’s driving your investments?
Which systems, people, processes, information and technologies will need to change, and how?
Do you need to shift your conversations from uplifting systems to uplifting services?
3. Establish a multi-disciplinary team
If you’re serious about achieving any kind of business transformation in a large organisation, you need a multidisciplinary team. And of course, you’ll want to stack that team with the usual suspects, like designers and researchers and technical experts.
But you should also recruit subject matter experts from within the business. When kept in the loop, a good subject matter expert:
Understands how the business works and what needs to change to shift it towards the future
Provides practical, valuable feedback when prototyping new ideas
Becomes a powerful ally for championing initiatives internally.
4. Continually test your ideas
When it comes to innovation, there’s no such thing as set and forget. The business landscape is volatile, projects run over time, and teams and capabilities change. So, it’s definitely worth continuing to test your ideas through the desirability, feasibility, viability lenses as time goes on.
For example:
Are there new technologies in your organisation that could fast-track your build?
Is the idea still desirable to customers?
Does the solution still align with the strategic roadmap?
How Arteri can help
In large organisations, innovation sometimes looks like this: you come up with an idea, engage a consulting firm to produce a strategy, and then wonder why the idea either never quite came to fruition, or is completely different to what was first proposed.
We say there are a few missing pieces in this approach. Not testing ideas enough before getting started is one. But the big piece is overlooking the opportunity to connect within the business through co-design and services design.
Our role is two-fold:
Encouraging you to think divergently and creatively to meet customer needs through good design.
Examining the back end of your organisation and developing a strategy that ensures it’s viable and feasible to deliver those services.
We don’t just help you come up with the ideas. We also do the leg work to help you make them a reality.
Want to know more? Let’s chat.