Innovation Strategy Tools (Part one)

Introduction

Last month, we discussed about Learning by Doing and how market researchers can use this learning process to expand their knowledge and skills through the experience of executing work. All while improving their innovation process.

This month we’ll begin on a new series on innovation strategy and how it can help you.

What is innovation strategy?

An innovation strategy is a list of items one must consider to grow an organization via innovation. It’s also a great way to understand how to develop a new product, brand or service and plan accordingly

In short, an innovation strategy is a set policies or behaviors needed to achieve a specific goal.

Why do you need an innovation strategy?

Failure is common in innovation initiatives. An innovation strategy helps prevent failure by giving structure and give you guidance to maintain your product’s performance once it’s released in the market.

There’s 3 reasons why you should have an innovation strategy:

An innovation strategy future-proofs your business, product, and service

An innovation strategy can help protect you from being disrupted. It keeps your business moving forward and prevents it from stagnating or from being overtaken by emerging competitors. It does this by helping you to discover and exploit opportunities for business and product growth.

An innovation strategy provides clear path ahead

Innovation can be messy and different teams and team members can wind up pursuing conflicting priorities. Having an innovation strategy can provide you with  a clear path ahead. Additionally, by understanding the path ahead you can prepare for challenges you may encounter.

An innovation strategy keeps a business looking forward

Companies are consistently evolving and standing still is quick way to lose your competitive edge. An innovation strategy keeps your business moving forward with a list of steps to guide you and your team ahead in an aligned way, with clear objectives, with efforts being focused in the right places. Aligns teammates, clarify objectives, and focus the right efforts to the right places.

3 steps for developing an innovation strategy

1. Align innovation with your business goals

Firstly, you need to understand which type of innovation your organization needs. There are 4 types of innovation which can be found in our expert channel. Once you’ve recognized with innovation you need to achieve, align it with your business goals and your competencies. Goals should be set high and be achievable within your team’s skillset to produce the innovation you have in mind.

2. Understanding your value proposition and the needs of your client

Products and businesses fail when there’s no need for them. You need to understand who are the people that your product or service serve. Extensive research should be conducted on your customers and different segments of the market you are looking for target.

3. Learn, assess, and adjust

You can’t get everything right all the time. So, measure your strategy’s success and adjust it if needed. A good innovation strategy that’s well measured and flexible helps you be open to trade-offs of different functionalities in your product. These allows you to design a strategy to match your specific competitive needs.

Next month we’ll be talking about different tools you can use to develop your innovation strategy.