The opportunities for innovation are already there.
Figuring out where there are opportunities for innovation is not about the management team having fancy strategic away days or pseudo-disruption workshops. It is about what is already happening on the edges: where customers intuitively have their own solution and way of working.
The best way I understand this, is in looking for the compensating behaviours. Or put simply: what customers are already doing to make their life better, easier, cheaper, etc.
Developing novel ideas for products and services can be inspired by simple and timely observations. A famous example is the OXO Good Grips Angled Measuring Jug. The idea for a better jug came from noticing how people bent down, held up and squinted to measure liquids.
Applying this approach to digital products and services gets even more interesting. Have a think — open up your photo album on your phone — when was the last time you took a screenshot?
Maybe for the train times on your journey?
Or a booking code you need accessible?
Or even for a photo you think is cute?
This is a compensating behaviour. Taking a screenshot can still feel the most intuitive thing to do in that moment, despite all the app’s efforts to help you save-share-export. Case in point via Chris Callaghan
And some apps have now started to design for compensating behaviours. Instagram encourages you “share this post with friends” when you screenshot a photo. And has also introduced a “Save” feature which allows users to save photos and videos they want to see again, in private.
Once compensating behaviours are understood, the challenge is knowing how to design with them and/or against them. In the case of most products, the long-game is to change behaviour. I.E. Instagram wants to change your behaviour with your mobile’s photo album and be the go-to solution for photo taking, saving and sharing.
Another example.
If we wanted to develop new solutions in the business of CRM software, looking at compensating behaviours in email clients is an interesting place to start…
How are folders structured?
When are drafts used?
What files are attached?
Who is copied in blind?
It can make sense to begin the product life as a plugin or integration. Just like what If No Reply (Ed Moyse & Harry Huang) are doing — a Gmail plugin to automate follow up emails for inbound and outbound sales.
The baby plugin may grow up to be something bigger, and become a way to get customers onto a separate the CRM platform. I’m sure the team at If No Reply have already thought about this :-)
So to wrap up.
In the murky waters of digital development, where adding more features, more buttons, more screens and more workflows can be seen as the only way to make better products and services. It’s time to take stock. Firstly, take a look at what is already happening. The opportunities for innovation are already there.
