Innovation Is More Than Creativity
Adding value is the difference
Photo by Tanja Tepavac on Unsplash
Creativity
In the context of new product development, being creative is super easy. Just make something new or different.
Paint it orange.
Add some knobs or buttons to a dashboard.
Put wheels on it.
Add a web app.
Change the font.
Change, well, anything.
As long as the change makes the product new or different it’s creative. If it breaks the status quo in any way, it’s creative. Simple to do.
But, I don’t see that as innovation.
Innovation
To be innovative, a change needs to clear a higher bar. As I define it, innovation adds value for your company and its customers (or perhaps stakeholders).
If orange paint, knobs, wheels, an app, or a different font don’t benefit your company and customers, then that creativity risks being a waste of time and resources. A creative waste, but a waste nonetheless. Change for change’s sake.
To be innovative requires a “why”. It is intentional.
Innovation implies making progress, not just change.
When I hear the word innovation, I think of inventions that move a product, its customers, and the company forward. Innovations go beyond mere creativity. Creativity is fun, while innovation is valuable.
Innovations are made with intent to make a product better, to compete better in a given market, and to add value to your company via either price or market share.
Answering “Why?”
As I help equip companies with a process to create an ongoing stream of innovative product concepts, we answer “Why?” in three ways before we even begin to ideate solutions.
Select an innovation project that is strategically important to your company. This ensures we are creating value for your company.
Gather information from customers in that area to understand what they value. Not features, but values. Learn what they love and what they hate. Learn how they perceive value.
Determine where your design efforts can have the biggest value-adding impact. This focuses your ideation and design activities on those high-value areas.
At this point, you are set to start ideation and design. You know where to focus your design activities to create the most value for your company and customers.
TL;DR Takeaways.
Creativity might be fun, but innovation is valuable.
Ideation needs a focus, just like a jazz ensemble needs to agree on a time signature and key before they start to to improvise melody among themselves.
This article explains more about why I published last Sunday’s article about starting with an idea funnel. Without the first three steps, that funnel is just a bucket for unfocused ideas that might be creative, but not innovative.
An innovation process can be repeated over and over again, creating innovative products and new value at each iteration. It’s a wise use of corporate resources.