Innovation

 

From insight to idea; implementation to icon.

 

The UK Design’s Council is the basis to my innovation approach - building from the original 4 phases, to include a 5th - Dissect.

Using ‘Discovery’ and ‘Define’ to focus on “Designing the Right Thing”. Progressing to ‘Develop’ and ‘Deliver’ to “Design the Thing Right”. With ‘Dissect’ then used to “Analyse the Insight” gleaned from the experiment, either looping back in to drive the next iteration, or moving forward and into the main business.

 

Methodology

 

Discovery

This is the time to break the brief - to get under the skin of the current business to better understand the motivations, metrics and strategy of the business (internal focus) and its industry (external focus).

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Internal Focus: Audit of products + services / Strategy Review / BMC of current business / Stakeholder workshops / Audience Research (IDEO HCD approach) / SWOT

External Focus: Competitor analysis / Parallel market review / Trends + Tech review

 

Define

What has been learnt so far? Gather the insights, seek out patterns or categorise the findings and begin looking for problems and problem areas that need to be solved.

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Brain dump / Insight Clustering / Problem Categorisation / Problem Areas / HMW Questions

Develop

Hypothesise solutions to the defined problems and break them down into ‘leaps of faith’ assumptions. Generate ways to test and derisk ideas and begin to rank solutions that look to have the best potential and returns.

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Solutions Workshop / Assumption Matrix / BMC Models / Financial Models / Prioritisation

Deliver

The goal is to fail fast and learn. What are the biggest and riskiest assumptions? Find ways to test these through the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Outline the key metrics that would mark success and get MVP to users.

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Derisking: Research / Validation Canvas / Micro-testing / Success Criteria + KPIs 

MVP: Prototype / Pilot / Trial / Landing page

Dissect

What was learnt? Were the success metrics met? Greenlighting the next stage to build out and scale up? Or are there new insights with which to loop back to ‘Develop’ to better create a solution? Or are there new insights that suggest a pivot and redefining the problem areas identified in ‘Define’?

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KPI Analysis / Audience Interviews/Feedback

Next Steps: Business Case / Elevator Pitch / BMC / Roadmap / Funding Opportunities

Inpiration

  • Lean Start-Up

    - Erics Ries

  • Doughnut Economics

    - Kate Raworth

  • 4-Hour Workweek

    - Tim Ferriss

  • Small Is Beautiful

    - E. F. Schumacher

  • Holocracy

    - Brian J. Robertson