Innovation and the formula for change -1
“If the total perceived pain of adopting a smartphone is for whatever reason higher than the perceived crisis the user experiences without it, the user will not buy a smartphone. But if the crisis of not having one is greater than the total perceived pain of adopting the smartphone, then the user will buy it.”
Pip Coburn’s “The Change Function.”
An innovation qualifies as such when a novelty is adopted and, therefore, fulfills the purpose it was designed for. But, it is true that casual and accidental innovations exist. These are inventions that become unexpected innovations.
This means that some research and inventions end up fulfilling purposes that are different from what their original design called for. 3M’s Post-it being one of the best known cases. As shared in previous articles, most entrepreneurs I talk to share that what makes their products and services successful is, often times, surprisingly different from what they started the business with.
When talking about innovating, I like emphasizing the term “novelty” because it means not only that “something is new, sticking, original, intellectually exciting or interestingly unusual,” but also that “an invention is coming into being.” My experience is that introducing a new technology makes sense in any of the following scenarios:
- replacing existing products and services, mostly a substitution effect driven by incremental innovation;
- fulfilling unmet needs not addressed by current products and services, as James Dyson likes to say “solving problems others have chosen to ignore;”
- delivering new unique capabilities that we could not possibly realize with past and current products and services, a feat that characterizes “next generation offers.”
All of the above implies dealing with something that “changes.” So, assessing how to best introduce a new product or service does require studying the nature of a shift and if resistance to change is part of that picture.
Many believe that user centered strategies are about not asking customers to significantly change existing usage and purchasing behaviors, so that the new technology can enjoy a better chance of success. However, that’s not always doable when dealing with emerging and disruptive technologies: dramatic changes happen and entirely new markets are created while other transform and even cease to exist.
If interested in the subject, come back to this blog for more insights tomorrow. In the meantime, I will appreciate your comments and questions.
J. de Francisco blogging from Chicago on June 15, 2010
