Innovation Management: Learning by Doing (Part Eight)

Introduction

Last month we discussed Creating a Safe Space for Innovation and how market researchers can create one to improve their innovation process. This month we’ll talk about ‘learning by doing’ in this safe space.

Learning by doing is a great way to learn about a product, brand, or service and it can help market researchers to improve their innovation process and increase their skillset.

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.” Donald Rumsfeld –  American politician, government official, and businessman

What is learning by doing?

Learning-by-doing is a type of learning process focused that allows participants to expand on their knowledge and skills through the experience of executing work. This experience-based, approach to learning is an excellent methodology for venturing into the unknown.

It’s a process in which market researchers can make sense of their experiences by making things and exploring the subject. This method of learning about a product or service is slightly ambiguous. This is because one does not know what they will encounter in this learning process.

However, this method can help market researchers understand products and gain new skills quickly. Especially in the space of innovation where unknown unknowns are common. 

Instead of failing fast, companies should “learn fast” by designing initiatives to ensure learning, instead of hoping that failure leads to insight.

Why is learning by doing needed in the innovation process?

The answer is simple. In the space of innovation, there are many problems and solutions we do not know that we don’t know to exist (unknown unknowns) until we start working on a product. These unknowns can elude even the most meticulous of planning and preparation.

Hence, one of the best ways to learn about your product and improve on the skills required for developing it is to build and learn on the go.

There are four stages of learning by doing. But what are they?

Stage 1. Doing

Through doing, you can form concrete experience from using a product. This can come in a form of research such as fieldwork or testing. By doing, you could unearth new problems, solutions, or experiences that were unknown before. This new encounter could lead to a reinterpretation of your existing plan or validate it.

Example:

When using an e-commerce conjoint website to record and measure how users behave, you could experiment with all of its tools and capabilities. This will help you understand the different barriers, pros, and cons of the product.

Stage 2. Think

Think about the experience with what you’ve done. Or consult someone who has done the same. It’s important to observe your new experience and reflect on it and on the different rationale you could apply if you should proceed with new changes or continue as planned.

Example:

You find the user experience is not seamless as you had hoped for, but you require a solution that’s simple and fast to implement.

Stage 3. Conceptualize

Conceptualizing is developing practical and viable ideas that are new to, or a modification of, the original concept that you have learned from your experience in the Doing and Observing. The goal of this stage is to look at things from different perspectives and use your imagination to solve practical problems.

Example:

You think that reducing the amount of copy or providing fewer functions on a website will streamline the process and better the user experience.

Stage 4: Experimentation

Experiment with these newly created or modified ideas; the goal here is to see if these ideas work.

Example:

You test out your different ideas to see which works best.

Next month…

Next month we talk about innovation strategy and how it can help market researchers.