I have been working as a software developer for a long time and I usually listen to my coworkers’ opinions using arguments like “our company needs to innovate”. However, when you talk about innovation in a company, you will see people coming up with ideas such as technology adoption or the usage of a new cool methodology to create or improve something. Everybody agrees that it is good to create new things and some people feel proud of their creation. However, innovation is not just a creation or a simple improvement. It is a more complex process. In this text, I would like to discuss innovation.
Innovation vs. Invention
Creating something new is usually associated with innovation. This idea is partially correct since creating something new is one of the stages of innovation. In other words, innovation involves, besides creating something, a set of stages. Considering this perspective, innovation is a process. The literature says that invention is different from innovation. An invention is to create something, initially with no profit potential. On the other hand, innovation can be defined as a process that starts with an idea. Afterward, this idea is materialized in an invention that will be probably commercialized to generate wealth. Summarizing, an invention (or an improvement) that does not generate profit is not considered an innovation. Once understood the before-mentioned difference, a question that might appear is: how does the innovation process happen? However, before answering the question, it is important to keep in mind that the innovation process can take place in several contexts, ranging from the environment of a huge company to a startup that has just been born. This context difference leads to singularities in the innovation process such as a distinct number of stages, different approaches, etc. Nevertheless, in this text, I will give just an overview of the innovation process.
The Innovation Process
In general, the innovation process starts with the identification of an existing relevant problem. Considering the innovation context, a relevant problem is the one in which you will probably find a potential market, with people who want to pay for a solution that solves it. Nevertheless, it is hard to find a relevant problem. To find one, you have to study a lot to identify items like inefficient processes, bureaucracy, things that annoy people, etc. Note that, the identification problem step consists of thinking about the possible market and a solution for the problem. The next step, before creating the solution, is to check if the identified problem is a real problem and verify if your solution will solve the problem. In this step, the entrepreneur behavior is essential. The entrepreneurs’ characteristics such as “pushing yourself to the limit”, ego control, creativity are very important since you should visit your possible customers to see their impressions, opinions, feedback. The main objective of this step is to be certain that your problem exists and your solution fixes it. At this moment, every conclusion should be based on the evidence given by your possible customers, avoiding just rely on your intuition. In the end of this step, you should have the information needed to create the minimum viable product. Otherwise, you must think better about your problem and your solution. If you conclude that your problem and solution seem to be ok, it’s time to create and validate the minimum viable product, also known as MVP. In other words, it’s time to materialize the solution. The MVP is a solution constructed with just the core features sufficient to solve a problem. The idea is to spend less time developing it and show the product to early customers as soon as possible to validate it. The customers might give you several feedbacks about your MVP. After that, based on the feedbacks, the MVP should be improved. This cycle of development and validation should be repeated until the product reaches the customers’ expectations. As you can see, your product will be adapted whenever you get some feedback. That’s why you should develop it with just the core features initially, avoiding unnecessary wastes of time and money. Remember, it is expensive to create or add features. Besides, the MVP can be used to find a partnership or financial support since everybody will see that your product was created based on evidence supported by real feedbacks. Over time, your MVP might become a profitable business, if your validations and findings were correct.
Conclusion
In my professional life, I have seen people trying to innovate not knowing the real meaning of innovation. That’s the point that I want to criticize. Innovation is more than creation or improvement. It does not mean that creation or improvement are not important. I know its importance. I want to say that innovation needs extra efforts, strategy and an amplified view of your business. For more details about innovation, take a look at the Oslo Manual, The Global Innovation Index, and authors like Schumpeter and Peter Drucker.