What is your innovation process? Understanding why I keep looking forward

I’ve often been asked where I came up with ideas or products and until recently I hadn’t put much thought into identifying a pattern to the madness, but as I embark again on a new adventure I took some time to think about where the seed of this idea germinated and how that may have been similar to past ideation processes.

With a little research, it’s quite easy to come across varying interpretations of innovation processes which of course have had a lot of research behind them since innovation is such an important part of business success. So why is it then, that with all of this research and teaching on how to innovate, do companies mostly rely on acquisitions to drive innovation? I contend that the processes are good when applied to a problem or an impossible idea, but the spark of that impossible idea is the random catalyst that human interaction or boredom sparks 

Innovation Processes

There are many approaches to the innovation process, but two popular methods are questioning assumptions and following a structured process. In this blog post, we'll explore how these two approaches can be combined to create a powerful innovation engine for your organization.

Questioning Assumptions

Questioning assumptions is an approach to innovation that involves examining the underlying beliefs and assumptions that guide our thinking and actions. By challenging these assumptions, we can uncover new opportunities for growth and change. This approach can be particularly useful when we're trying to improve an existing process or system and is by far my favorite starting point

For example, let's say that you're looking to improve your company's customer service process. You could start by asking questions about each step in the process:

• Why do we do this step?
• What assumptions are we making about this step?
• What would happen if we didn't do this step?
• How could we modify or replace this step to achieve better results?

As you answer these questions, you may start to see new possibilities for improvement or innovation. Perhaps you'll discover that a particular step is no longer necessary, or that a different approach could yield better results.

Structured Innovation Process

A structured innovation process involves following a defined set of steps to generate and develop new ideas. This approach is particularly useful when we're trying to create something entirely new, such as a new product or service. A common structure for the innovation process includes the following stages:

1. Idea Generation: Brainstorming and gathering ideas from a variety of sources.
2. Idea Screening: Evaluating ideas based on feasibility and potential.
3. Concept Development: Refining and developing the most promising ideas.
4. Prototyping: Creating a working prototype to test the concept.
5. Testing and Validation: Gathering feedback from users and validating the concept.
6. Launch and Scaling: Bringing the product or service to market and scaling up production.

Combining the Approaches

So, how can we combine these two approaches to create a powerful innovation engine? One way is to use questioning assumptions to identify areas of an existing process or system that could be improved or eliminated. Then, we can use a structured innovation process to develop and test new ideas to replace or modify those steps.

For example, let's say that you're looking to improve your company's manufacturing process. You could start by questioning assumptions about each step in the process:

• Why do we do this step?
• What assumptions are we making about this step?
• What would happen if we didn't do this step?
• How could we modify or replace this step to achieve better results?

As you answer these questions, you may identify a step that is no longer necessary or could be improved. You could then use a structured innovation process to develop and test new ideas to replace that step.

For example, you could brainstorm ideas for automating the process or using new materials to reduce waste. You could then screen those ideas based on feasibility and potential, develop a concept for the most promising idea, create a prototype to test the concept, gather feedback from users to validate the concept, and launch and scale the new process if it proves successful.

The Spark

So back to my opening point - where does the spark come from? 

Recently I had a conversation with a friend about their plans for a bachelorette party and offered some suggestions to them - no, its not an area I’ve any expertise in, but thanks to ChatGPT I was momentarily party-planner extraordinaire, but during the conversation we moved on to the topic of resume matching and parsing which is an area of technology I’ve been familiar with over 20 years and have long since given up on the notion that this holy grail can be found. But that was all it took, a conversation about a Bachelorette party made me question the purpose of a Resume fuelled by the countless months of effort in trying to produce better resume matching results for ATS/CRM systems

Was this a pattern? I thought back to TempBuddy, regarded by many as a highly innovative solution and to what drove me to create it - and yes there was pain - Years before, I had spent months and months trying to translate what temporary recruiters described as their process into a technology solution which ended up being no better than the spreadsheets and notes they were already using. The pain of this failure to turn my efforts into something special had stuck with me. So if pain is the fuel, what ignites it?

I’ll publish part 2 with the answer soon enough - but in the meantime, think about your past pain, maybe there’s a spark in your next challenge that ignites it