Five doses of inspiration from the worlds of #Innovation, #Futurism, #Finance and #Utilities — plus one company that is #bringingtheawesome.
Friday 20th July, 2018
#1 When disruption becomes incrementalism
Incremental design is valuable for product optimisation and evolving towards a higher goal, we get it!
But there’s also a dark side… it can encourage an organisation to become a stagnating swamp of ideas, where careerists seek reward in the safety of doing the same thing over and over. Refining details of products that were basically dead anyway is one of the biggest digital traps, (never forget the sigmoid curve).
And then, there’s a whole design agency industry which charges big bucks just to help you sustain this status quo! Sometimes you need a jester to question the direction of the king.
#2 Are you experienced
Are you in a position to actually execute innovation, bearing in mind that only 4% of companies have reached innovation maturity?
You know that big ideas don’t move through to production like simple product updates, and as this author points out, turf wars, culture, and a lack of strategy are all out to get you.
You ever get the feeling that this might be another year where innovation is something you say rather than something you do?
Drop us a line if you feel you’re falling into this trap: steve@hppn.co.uk
#3 Covert innovation
If your innovation team’s efforts feel like they’re going on under the radar, then it’s all too easy for your ideas to become orphaned halfway through production, leaving you and your team high and dry with nothing to show.
Like this author, we believe in getting buy-in early on.
#4 The “CleanTech” machines are marching together
You’ve met them before, those characters who are pleased to tell you why we’ll always need fossil fuels and why electric cars and solar panels aren’t the answer.
Maybe what they don’t consider is that all of this CleanTech is converging into a mutually supportive energy industry: Solar works nicely with battery storage, storage works nicely with electric vehicles, and all of this tied together by a supportive new utilities business model. Prepare for takeoff!
#5 But just one sec before you go buy a Tesla
Q. In which old-fashioned industry does cost management STILL take precedence over revenue generation?
A. Utilities
But they know what they need to do, (the likes of Ovo are already doing it). Most however, are daunted by the challenges of Product Management and getting ideas to market. This is why Hppn are so invested in helping utilities companies to navigate the road less travelled.
This isn’t business as usual: Treon.io 🎉
22,000 Twitter followers and they’ve only been active since March! Treon are a growing phenomenon, intending to do for Utilities what the likes of Alipay are doing for payments: Service a vast customer base which is currently underserved.
A lot of people around the globe still queue to pay utilities bills. Managing their energy usage is clearly a chore. Treon seek to alleviate this task via a blockchain based token and an e-wallet from which to pay bills.
The utilities provider cuts transaction costs by up to 80%, and the customer is able to manage their account and even receive rewards. This one could be huge.
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Hppn does what now?
Hppn (ˈhap(ə)n) is a design and innovation agency. We specialise in anticipating evolving customer needs within the Financial Services and Utilities sectors, and then leading the creation of transformative products and services. So whether you want to build radical new products, make drastic improvements to processes, or explore the most difficult questions in your industry, we can help.
- Email: steve@hppn.co.uk
- Web — Hppn.co.uk
- Twitter — @hppnCo
