Hemang Shah | Innovation | Strategy | Startups
Innovation and Insights
Hemang Picking ice creams is a fun challenge. I had one and chose an interesting flavor for some guests visiting over.
I wanted to share my experience of how a brand missed out on an essential element for ice creams. How it, sort of, screwed up the customer journey and hence, the customer experience.
Let’s learn from this and how we can ensure customers will keep coming back for our offering.
Ever seen amateurs play tennis? Observe their game closely once and you’ll see clues of how you might be living your life. I am an amateur and there are some harsh observations. We all share certain behaviors and they reflect in our products. Amateurs can also teach us a few things too 🙂
Small and Medium Enterprises can sometimes give up too easily on an innovation project. Test Cricket, the long format of the game, has certain elements that capture our life well. There are many instances where you have to persist to get the result you want. It’s a game of patience and how we apply it to Innovation.
I love how the San Antonio Spurs play the game of basketball in a beautiful manner. Their brand is being unselfish. No matter which superstar they have on the roster, each one does the right thing.
The way they play the game teaches us a lot to us too. We can implement some of these observations for all our projects. Especially for innovation projects, this approach can work wonders.
In this episode, we will look at how we all have left money on the table with our projects.
Learn where in the innovation life cycle, we gave up and how we can ensure that we ensure success of our innovation projects.
Ever wondered “Why didn’t I think of that idea?” If so, look within and ask how satisfied you were with solutions in that space.
Growing up in Mumbai, I didn’t have a strong need for a food delivery app, grocery or taxi apps. The suburbs were developed, things were within walking distance, and transport was cheap/reliable.
My family members are in the textile business. Until recently, most used carbon copy (remember that blue ink paper?) solutions for invoices. While the world was cc’ing millions in emails, these folks were happy with the smudgy, original cc.
Unless a real pain is experienced things will stay in status quo. Necessity does bring out inventions. However, you have to separate that from an artificial necessity, which can probably create interesting solutions that may not be fully adopted by the market. What separates real from artificial necessity? IMO, the answer is a meaningful pain.
It might be prudent to ask what your satisfaction index is in different areas of your life. Extend that thought to organizations, to countries, and you will find products or services that have made a real difference. The state of satisfaction can mask problems and will lead to a prolonged status quo i.e. living with the good enough. Until someone shakes you up…
Sometimes instinct can be harmful. As unnatural as it may be, there are times when its better that you don’t act right away.
During brainstorming, the problem solver’s tendency is to start solving the first idea that caught their eye. It might be better to wait, allow some “bad” ideas and let the game changer emerge.
Using a sports analogy, Innovation is sometimes a game of base hits (baseball) or singles (cricket); incremental advancements that result in a win. Get the process right, keep at it, and the results will follow.
We are teaching our son adjectives and how they can be used to best describe nouns. The word “cool” when associated with “work” has varied perspectives. It’s amazing how teaching kids can make one think about simple words in a new light.
Many a time, especially during brainstorming discussions, I try getting the team to pause; to deliberately reflect on the impact our solution will have on the world. We, technology enablers, are truly blessed to solve problems faced by many. From the inside it might seem like the usual but from the outside it would be super awesome. Many of my startup friends seem to miss this pause-and-reflect trick once they get caught up in the grind.
Try pausing every now and then, most definitely at home. Your work does have a meaningful impact on the society. That is my definition of cool.
A few days ago, I posed a simple question to a room full of professionals. "How many of you worked on a final year project?" Nearly every hand was up. My follow-up question was at the start of this post. Nearly everyone had a small laugh on their faces; all confirmed my experience that most college projects end up in reports that a handful of people read. A tiny, tiny, percentage of those do end up getting implemented in the real world or influencing a new path in academia. This has to change! We need a higher conversion of projects to peer-reviewed journal publications or converting those projects into products. That's how valuable IP is generated. That's how we transform to a knowledge economy. If you are mentoring students, formally or as a friend, help their projects achieve a better outcome.
The decision making power in most SMEs is held by a few people. How should you approach pitching your innovation project at such enterprises?
We’ll cover what you need to know about your perception by the decision makers. When you approach them will they give you a fully attentive experience? For someone who’s never been taken seriously, then it’s an even more surmountable challenge.
How you can partner with a mentor who can help you shine.
Every decision maker functions a bit differently. Some are more imaginative whereas some tend to be quite numerical in their approach. How can you tailor your pitch towards their inclinations?
If you’re thinking about such a project, know that it can be very fulfilling and rewarding.