How to get your team to innovate on a consistent basis
Have your innovation projects yielded mediocre results? I have a fun solution. Go watch the movie Moneyball. It stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Chris Pratt (before he became Starlord), Philip Seymour Hoffman, and is based on a book by Michael Lewis. The story is about how an unlikely team almost won the American Baseball championship, the MLB World series. But, what does that have to do with innovation?
Moneyball shows a different way of looking at a game.
If asked which team will win the championship in a competition, I reckon you will look at the team with the leading stars. Irrespective of the sport, we tend to look at the movers-and-shakers and the clutch players who win championships. In other words, the big names who are paid big bucks. A team with no marquee players almost has no chance against these giants.
When it comes to innovation, we often consider ourselves as the minors against the larger-than-life innovation greats in our organizations.
Who are we to generate ideas? And if we do, surely the inventors around us must have thought of them already. That’s where we look at the approach followed in real life by Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt in the movie.
Instead of being overawed by stars, it’s much better to look at the key elements which required to win a game. In baseball, it is about getting people onto the base and scoring the runs for you. The stars will hit their home runs, but that’s not the only way to get there.
You can score one at a time and still win the game.
The sport has enough room for people who keep things moving step-by-step instead of mouth-gaping moments, such as home runs, which are sporadic. If you keep things moving, you can create more scoring opportunities.
Innovation projects are similar, but they need a defining element. A goal.
Something as nebulous as “we need to execute on the new and different” is vague for most of us. Because it is ill-defined, we create a mental picture of path breaking discovery. But, why is that a problem?
It is because any idea suggested to get there seems inferior to this lofty goal.
We get in the rejection mode leaving a trash can of discarded ideas. I guarantee if you look at that bin again, you will find great value sitting there. Just reflect on the “I wish I’d done that” mentions around you. I am sure you have heard yourself or others wistfully wonder aloud of ideas they thought of but didn’t execute and others have made successful products on those.
Is there a solution? Absolutely. Else I would be totally boring you leading you to this point 🙂
Let’s start by defining our primary responsibility, which is to serve the consumer. Our success, as individuals and as organizations, hinges on how well they like our products and services. We need to know their tastes and preferences, their pain points, and what is their innate need. That is the golden question every company, every entity whether it’s a startup or the highest valued company in the world is trying to answer.
The best way to learn is by being in touch with the consumers themselves.
Larger corporations have an advantage here because they have more touch points through events, conferences, and a staff that engages further. What can an individual like you do at this stage? Even if you are working for a large corporation, it is a part of our duty to spot what the upcoming trends are.
Now, let’s go trend spotting.
I like to use social media a lot to learn where the trend is coming from or in other words where the wind is blowing. You can use LinkedIn, or X / Twitter for this. Reddits are a good place to look at some of these subreddits to understand what people are talking about.
Seek out the highly passionate ones who are giving an opinion.
It’s also important that some of these opinions to be different than yours. Because the true, passionate ones will have a no filter approach. Your job is to study them and determine for yourself which of these would make sense or not. For example, you will find plenty of people who claim that the economy is going to tank in the next six months. Do they back it up with reasons? Do they explain well enough to determine if their assumptions are remotely valid or not? If there is merit in what they are saying, they will teach it well.
Another way to learn is by seeing other product launches.
ProductHunt, Kickstarter, Gumroad are some for startup or indie projects. I like these because these are tailored for a niche, a very small set of people. Quite likely, a larger company has not offered it yet. It’s a signal of the times to come ahead.
At this stage, you have a finger on the pulse of YOUR customer.
You know what to deliver for their pressing need. Addressing that may not need a multi-year budget and an army of the best talent around you.
You have moneyballed your target.
Achieving your goal is a much easier journey. You will have a greater confidence of what needs to be done.
Your solution will also find more acceptance with the customers and will change the trajectory of your innovation projects!
Have fun!