Don’t innovate by looking in the rear view mirror
By James Jesty, Shape New Ideas
You can’t drive your car by looking in the rear view mirror. Likewise, you can’t drive your innovation efforts by looking backwards.
A lot of innovation mirrors the competition, encourages a ‘category’ mindset — ‘hey, they’ve just introduced a mango and passionfruit yogurt that’s selling well, why don’t we?’ This approach of looking backwards may work to fine tune your core business, but to make breakthroughs you need to be looking ahead for inspiration.
Scan the horizon for trends. Spend time up close and personal with your consumers to understand the broader context in which your products and services are used. We often find that what really influences attitudes and behaviours isn’t what you expect, and is commonly found from outside of your category. We call these ‘contextual insights’ and they are hugely important and avoid the ‘rear view mirror’ approach to innovation.
