Return on Intention

Henry Ford once said “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Henry believed that innovation needed to come from inside because most people don’t really know what they want, just that they want out of the options that already exist.

Craig Newmark has a very different story to tell. Craig said that he essentially never made any decision about Craigslist, his users told him what they wanted and he implemented it.

Both Craigslist and Ford are successful companies, so which way is right? Do you get your ideas from customers or do you innovate internally? Both. Innovation often comes from insight, and that can happen both inside and outside the company. Here are few quick tips to help you create the potential for insight, and hopefully innovation.

Listen

A good start is to listen to your customers. Its a good idea to NOT rule out the feedback of your customers, it can’t hurt. This may not lead to the next great innovation (although it might), but at the very least it can point out some of the pain points they have that can give you a good idea of where to look for the innovation. Understanding how your product or service fits into your customers lives can help you find new and innovative ideas that can really make a difference.

Eat your own dog food

This point is related to the point above, but from a new perspective. To really understand the highlights and short comings of your product or services you have to experience it. I don’t mean drive your companies new car for an afternoon. Live with it for months. Fully integrate your offering into your own life as best you can.

Get to you know your place in the ecosystem

Your product or service fits into your customers live’s not in isolation, but in the midst of all the rest of the stuff in their lives. A coffee mug is not an isolated experience. The “user” of the coffee mug uses it in conjunction with their coffee pot, coffee grinder, milk, creamer, sugar and their morning newspaper to create an entire morning routine experience. By understanding your product or services place in this larger experience you can then try to see how your offering can  increase the pleasure or effectiveness of the overall experiences. That’s innovation.

Look at other industries

Every industry has gone through wrenching changes that have created amazing innovations to deal with the crisis.  While this can be challenging, if you can identify the current state of your industry and match that to the state of another industry before a time of change, you might find some insight into your  industries next innovation.