The conversation is… What is innovation?
The Conversation is… is a new short-form blog I’m looking to write occasionally where I will take suggested topics or questions from LinkedIn or Twitter and respond in a quick conversational post. Let’s go!
What is innovation?
OK, this is a tough one. There are a million interpretations of the definition of innovation and innovative products and doing innovation. Let’s get the premise out of the way —in my opinion, I’d argue many of them are incorrect (or not fully formed).
Fallacious reasoning
First, I want to talk about fallacies, which will give context to why I believe we so often incorrectly define or categorise innovation.
A fallacy is a mistaken belief or faulty reasoning which makes an argument unsound. An example of a fallacy is the fallacy of authority, e.g. just because someone is a police officer doesn’t make them inherently good, or just because someone is in a leadership position in a company doesn’t make them smart (remember the concept of being promoted into incompetence?).
There are two mainstream definitions of innovation which I propose are ‘easy’ but don’t necessarily tell the full story — these are fallacies.
The fallacies of innovation
Process
the action or process of innovating
- Oxford Languages
The first fallacy of innovation revolves around it being a process — a framework or way of working that is a doable thing that’s repeatable and can provide knowable results.
This fallacy leads us to using innovation as a verb — this is where we get the terrible bastardisation innovating or, slightly better but equally as missing-the-point, to innovate.
Instead of using innovating, try replacing the word with thinking and tell me if you think what you’re doing is actually innovative, or if you’re just trying to become innovative through a process of design.
Newness
a new idea, method, or device : NOVELTY
the introduction of something new
- Miriam Webster
The second fallacy invokes novelty as its primary trait — did this exist before? This fallacy proposes that the simple act of doing something new may make it innovative. But this reading doesn’t quantify quality or require impact or adoption — you’re innovative solely because you built something new.
Innovation — (re)defined
It’s one thing to say innovation is about building new things, but that’s not to say that every new thing is innovative — it’s a fallacy, much like the fallacy of authority.
Numerous inventions and products and businesses have been lost to history that were most certainly new and novel and unique. But there’s more to it, isn’t there?
So what can we do? Well, sure, we can have a definition, but we must give the body a soul for it to be meaningful — context, criteria, boundaries.
The context
This is probably the most fundamental thing about innovation, for me: it’s retrospective — you cannot be innovative.
One of the principle misunderstandings of innovation is that you can be innovative at all.
This is a fallacy.
Innovation is subjective and highly dependent on the zeitgeist.
Further, it’s detached from the one doing the so-called innovating — instead, it’s the outcome that’s innovative, not your effort.
You’re innovative when others say you are.
And much like profit is an outcome of all of the other processes and improvements in a Balanced Scorecard, innovation is a potential outcome of your efforts, not simply a guarantee of your intent.
You want to potentially have innovative products? Do good product.
Speak to your customers, build what they need, have great people, treat them right, build psychological safety, nurture radical ideas, take a look at design thinking and working with agility, and empower your talented people to make big decisions, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get lucky and actually develop something that is seen to be innovative.
At the end of the day, when the halls and office echoes of bullshit bingo have died down, we’re all here to solve problems for people. Stop worrying about whether you’re innovative or not and just go about making things easier for the people who use your products and services — chances are the two align.
It’s an outcome, not an input.
Innovation is…
An outcome
You cannot do innovation and you cannot be innovative. Instead, focus on making great products and services and create the environment for your team to have great ideas that could potentially be the next big innovation.
Not self-proclaimed
Similar to the first one, you can’t say you’re innovative. The market tells you that you’re innovative, or more accurately, that your products or services are innovative. Since it’s outcomes, your outcomes speak for you.
Remember the fallacy of authority? Well, wishing doesn’t make it so.
Retrospective
Since it’s an outcome, innovative things can only be decidedly innovative after they’re done. Too many companies and articles proclaim a new innovation in the alpha stage for marketing and then it never launches or it doesn’t achieve its set out results.
Innovation is a test of time.
Solves problems
Back to the fallacy of newness — just because something is an invention doesn’t make it innovative. It has to actually solve problems.
This is where some of the magic can lie — good design and product thinking can find problems we didn’t know we had and fix for them. That’s how you build new markets!
But that’s not the same as idea-first inventions finding problems (think many blockchain protocols right now). Blockchain is cool tech, but we’re still waiting for the other feet to drop.
Provides material change
This is my favourite criterion. This is the stretch target.
I believe in incremental innovation as well as disruptive. You don’t always have to build a brand new technology or market, but for it to be innovative it still has to be substantive, and material. It needs to have impact.
Widely used
Any innovation needs to be accepted and adopted — an invention that never makes it past the garage isn’t an innovation, it’s just a hobby. I think back to the inventor father in Gremlins and his all-in-one business-person travel kit that no one wanted to buy.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! And I hope you have found it interesting or potentially useful. You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter (@goforsergei) if you want to talk more!
