How do you Start Innovating?
Innovation! What is it? Sounds cool doesn't it? Everyone is so excited to hear about a new innovation happening in the world. Because of Social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram & snap chat, it is very easy to make an innovation go viral. But what is it actually?? And what is the essence of coming up with an innovation? I hope I will be able to give you a brief idea about this in my publication.
Let’s go back a few decades. We all have heard about Thomas Alva Edition, the Wright Brothers & Guglielmo Marconi. They are all famous inventors. from the light bulb (Edison) to the radio (Marconi), these gentlemen along with many others created the inventions that drive the modern world. Fast forwards to the 21st century and we seem to be saying “What is there to invent anymore, everything has been invented”. This perception that people have is unfortunately wrong. If we take a beat to sit down and observe the surroundings, we can notice that this is not a perfect world. There are many problems and Pain Points that people around you are facing on a daily basis. You just got to sit down and observe.
If you really think about it, Innovation is not ultimately about the final Product, but its about Solving a Particular Problem or need that someone is facing. Let’s say you came up with the most cool and awesome looking innovation that you spends many many hours and hundreds of dollars in developing. There is absolutely no point of this innovation if people do not need to use your Product. This says that you have developed this product for just yourself and not to solve a problem that someone else has. Hence, what is the point of this innovation!?! You do no good to others.
Therefore I believe that the most important aspect of innovation is studying your environment and having the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This is called having Empathy. Empathy is different from Sympathy. It involves, first, seeing someone else situation from his perspective, and, second, sharing his emotions, including, if any, his distress. I will be talking about the difference between the two in my next publication.
Alright! Empathy!! Let’s look at few examples of good innovation that I have personally witnessed working at an Innovation Center. Last December, apart from the fabulous amounts of food that was consumed during Christmas :D something wonderful took place. Our engineers at IgniterSpace decided to host a Young Innovator Exhibition where kids who followed our Foundation program in technology would need to come up with their own innovations.
Here comes this little boy. He says that he is going to be building a head massager. Sounds mediocre right. But then he tells me why! So he tells me that his dad works at home till very late and when he goes to see him while his dad is working, he has seen him always holding his head and feeling stressed.
The little boy had thought what could be done: “Hmmm, I cannot ask my dad to stop working. He will not listen to me. What can I do? I was him, wouldn’t stop working. But what if someone could massage my head a bit. That would relieve me of my stress”……………….. “I got it!!! I am going to build him a head massager device!!!”
Now this is a perfect example of having Empathy on a person and coming up with an Innovation to solve their problem. So, if you are struggling with finding an idea to come up with a new innovation, just stow down. Take a beat, sit down and observe. Empathize. And very soon you will be able to come up with a good Innovation!
Hope this helped. Cheers!
