Avoid innovation shipwrecks: resist technological temptations

When technology becomes an end in itself, you often end up with clever innovation built for problems that do not exist.

Having the answer, missing the question

Letting innovation processes begin with a specific technology often narrows innovation to products, services, or internal processes. But organization design, partners, business models, distribution, marketing, and customer experience can be just as important arenas for innovation, without technology having to sit at the center.

Starting with trendy technology also tends to force an early jump into the solution phase. Understanding the actual challenge is difficult enough on its own. Once a team has emotionally committed to one technology, it becomes far less willing to consider other approaches or recognize that the real problem lies somewhere else entirely.

Understand the problem that needs solving

Clayton Christensen spent years trying to understand why so many organizations fail at innovation. His conclusion was that they focus too much on products, services, and customer segments, and too little on the job the customer is actually trying to get done.

To succeed with innovation, organizations first need to understand what task the customer is trying to solve, the context in which that task appears, and the conditions that make the customer choose one product or service over another.

The real shortcut to innovation is not hidden in the cloud, in blockchain, or in alternative realities. It lies in understanding the problem that actually needs to be solved.

The seductive course of the sirens

The promise of privileged insight into the future has always been irresistible. In Homer’s Odyssey, the sirens promised knowledge of all things to come. Odysseus had been warned that following their song would end in disaster. So he ordered his crew to block their ears and tie him to the mast.

We are surrounded by technological sirens of our own. It is easy to believe that innovation lives in data clouds, fashionable platforms, or alternate realities. But all of those can become distractions if they pull us away from the challenges customers are actually facing.

The narrow path to innovation

The biggest advantage startups have is not simply that they use new technology. It is that they are freer to begin with the customer’s challenge and experiment their way toward a good solution. Established companies, however, hold other enormous advantages: strong brands, trusted relationships, customer access, and partner networks that startups can only dream of.

That means established organizations that manage to innovate in a truly breakthrough way hold a major advantage. But it takes more than chasing the next technology wave. Leaders need to help employees understand what new technologies actually change, while shielding explorers from temptations that drag them away from the problem worth solving.