What if you need to create an innovative product in a traditional company?

What kind of "golden hammer" are trying to apply to the development of innovative products in Russian large companies? In the past 5 years, there is a trend in the domestic corporate entrepreneurship (Inner Corporate Venture, hereinafter ICV), and most large companies fearlessly begin to introduce new approaches to doing business and create innovative laboratories, teams and divisions specifically for this. Such concepts as MVP (Minimum Viable Product - the minimum viable product), Lean Startup (a thrifty startup), etc. are used in everyday life.

An example of a golden hammer in IT

Our hero - the project manager, who previously worked as the head of the system analytics department at the bank, takes a new position and receives the first task - to create a service from scratch, the task of which will be to help the bank’s clients manage their personal finances. Our hero was faced with IT tasks, but only from the side of describing the requirements he received from the operations department. It is not surprising that he decides to use familiar tools, and within a few hours / days / months he throws in a service project, looks at what competitors have, googles, what basic functions should be to control personal finances, copy Easyfinance interfaces, etc. However, the result predictably does not suit his manager or clients, nothing “does not take off.” How so? After all, he has a MVP!

And here our hero tries to understand what he did wrong! More precisely, it is very difficult for him to admit his mistake (see The Dunning-Kruger Effect), so he is looking for answers in the “if ...” format and wants explanations.

What is the basis of the innovation development methodology?

At the moment, there are three main development cycles for new products, processes and systems. Briefly, they can be described as:
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Design thinking

Design thinking refers to creative strategies that developers use in the process of identifying problems that arise during the development of a new product. Brainstorming to develop breakthrough ideas that will save the company from ruin, in its traditional sense, by the way, is one of the worst ways to develop a new idea. On the other hand, we can dramatically increase the effectiveness of such events, if we can invite the right people, create the right atmosphere and use the right tools. Tim Brown, founder and president of IDEO, a world-renowned design and consulting company, defines design thinking: “design thinking is a people-centered approach to developing innovation, which instead of using a set of design tools, focuses on the needs of people with capabilities that provide modern technology based on the requirements of achieving success in business. "

Thrifty startup

Lean startups are used to transform these proposed solutions into business models based on assumptions whose viability is immediately tested in a problem interview or an interview about the decision to separate the “chaff from the chaff”, followed by a change in the proposal to meet customer requirements. Known statistics, which do not forget to bring in any presentation for startups, approximately 95% of startups fail, and the number one reason lies in ignorance of the laws of the market and the team’s hallucinations: a product is created for which no one wants to buy or pay more than the actual cost of such product, including shipping.

The concept of a lean startup came to light in Silicon Valley closer to the end of the first decade of this century, although it has its roots in the lean manufacturing system of the Japanese concern Toyota. However, the Toyota system has its drawbacks: it teaches us how to effectively create a product, but it does not teach us where to begin its development.

Agile or flexible iterative development

Once you have a very good idea about what you can offer on the market and you have decided on the underlying business model, you can start the active phase of its implementation on the market, but do not forget about the tight iterative interaction with customers.

All this goes against traditional ideas, according to which the development team must strictly adhere to a predetermined algorithm of actions, regardless of profit or lack thereof, which this kind of activity has already brought or has not brought. Agile was based on a growing iterative approach that replaced fundamental planning at the initial stage of the project. It involves changing requirements as the project progresses and constant feedback to the end user.

How to put all this together?

Design thinking helps us get more effective ideas, lean startups allow us to translate these ideas into viable business models, and a flexible approach helps to quickly and quickly deliver a product to the market while having constant feedback from customers and giving them exactly what they want. need to. Gartner specialists have proposed the following scheme for combining these three approaches on the project:



Integrated use of design thinking, lean start-up and a flexible approach carries not only a greater likelihood of developing a more productive idea, but also translating this idea into real products, which also will have instant commercial value for customers and at the same time not carry the dangers of disrupting the project schedule and increasing the cost of the product, which is what big companies do when developing and producing innovative products. In addition, your company employees get the opportunity to feel involved in a more creative and interesting process.

Instead of a conclusion ...

There is no magic in creating an innovative product; there is a set of working tools at every stage of work, confirmed by many companies.

What to do to our hero? One of the main ideas is to get as much feedback from the market as possible and enter your idea into the market before the development budget is spent.