a study in innovation
DESCRIPTION
Presentation at IASA focusing on the process of Innovation.TRANSCRIPT
Innovation
• It’s the new wonder word
• Noun - a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation
• Verb - the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new
• But can’t we get more targeted than that?
The Process
•Capabilities
•Brainstorming
•Targeting
•Rapid Prototyping
•Proofing
•Finalization
•Documentation
•Presentation
Capabilities
• These are your Knowns and Known Unknowns
• Building Capabilities is often the most challenging part of the process.
• Diverse Capabilities are key to a successful effort
• Be Careful not to center on a single
capability
• Example:
• EDDIE Robotics Research Platform
• Kinect Game Sensor
• Windows 8 Alpha SDK
• Phidgets Hardware Interface System
Brainstorming
• “I need a…”
• “I want a…”
• “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”
• “I read about a…”
• “I saw a movie about…”
• Key parts of Brainstorming are understanding the scope and objectives.
• Product
• Press
• Process
• Inspritation
Targeting
• This is where the mapping happens
• How do you use Capability X/Y/Z to get to Brainstorm A/B/C?
• Quickly throw out the impractical or the improbable.
• Decide on at least the general feature set
• Don’t get too detailed yet
• Build your list of questions
Rapid Prototyping
• THIS is where you want to spend your time
• Rapid means many things – ideally you want to have a cycle time of about 24 hours.
• Hardware is actually easier to break down into rapid chunks than software
• Let your answers guide your path – a “It won’t work” result is the second best answer you’ll get. “Not sure” is the worst.
• When working with hardware – budget for failure (3x requirements are conservative.)
Finalization• At some point you’ll have to decide what will make the first
cut
• Remember that it should be just the first cut – waiting for production quality on everything leads to paralysis.
• Finalization will often take as much time as prototyping did.
• Things that don’t make this cut go back into the idea pile for Rev Next.
• Never let there be a final Rev (or at least always act as if there is a Rev Next.)
Documentation
• Nothing’s done until the paperwork is in.
• Seriously – you’ll need to push out the information to others. If you can’t, you’re stuck with it.
• Documentation is also your QC – this is where you find all those obvious problems before you go out in public.
• Build it as a hand-off packet – and a budget justification for that Rev Next.
• Bring the lawyers in at this point – this will likely be when the patents and trademarks happen.
Presentation
• Part of the Innovation process is the presentation - what kind will depend on the goals you started with
• Press – Pretty clear
• Process – Internal leads
• Inspiration – Internal and external
• Product – Production people first, and then release
• This is also why communications skills are an important part of an innovation team
• This is the payoff – where teams get to gather mindshare for their innovations
So how do YOU do it?
• Build the right team
• Give them the support and budget to explore
• Give them cover from Bureaucracy
• Give them a time limit
• Give them a target
• Give them the authority to get it done
• Get out of the way
Questions?
