Nurture your innovation ideas
By James Jesty, Shape New Ideas
A big barrier to innovation is often insufficient resources and expertise to help uncover big wins. This doesn’t mean unlimited budgets and no constraints; constraints focus the mind and foster creativity.
However to unlock truly innovative solutions requires time and space to explore. Innovators need to be protected from the slings and arrows that organisations throw at them.
Lay down some covering fire to protect your team from organisational distractions. Do this by removing the long tail of small unproductive projects that tie people (and money) up, and release them to focus on the important initiatives.
A team needs time up front to prototype and explore alternative solutions and strategies. The first idea won’t be the best. If they iteratively experiment with ideas and develop a clear understanding of the features and benefits the consumer desires they will uncover those critical ‘ah ha’ moments. This approach also saves time and reduces risk downstream in a project.
A weak idea that gets handed over to a project team will tie the organisation up in costly development, only to find the consumer insight was flawed or there is no line of sight on a technical solution. Spending more time up front to define an idea ultimately saves time and money, reduces risk and leads to bigger ideas.
