Thursday 25 April 2013

12 Trends in 2013 for New Products? At least 4 will propel your firm to greatness.

Recently "Trends for new products and services in 2013" was published Are they correct? When contextualized into a low vs. high market + a startup vs. corporate model yes, they create  value. How can your firm benefit? Simple: Growth by Innovation or Growth by Acquisition. Here's how & by simplifying we get to the meat of making it happen.



2013 Trend 1: Tension is where competition starts
Summary Description: "Services that let you be predictable one day and impulsive the next, and products that appeal to values that once seemed in tension: eco and luxury, traditional and playful, retro and hyper-modern.
Innovation Model: Start a news company/division that pays attention to what people are doing & where they are going on a daily basis
Acquisition Model: Buy these users, their clicks, there location information and/or preferences, details and usage patterns


2013 Trend 2: "Customer-facing employees are your brain and your backbone."           
Summary Description: "The sales associate, the courier, the flight attendant, or the service agent--in many ways these are your most important, best-informed people. "
Innovation Model: innovation tracking software, blogging aggregation, employee twitter analytic systems
Acquisition Model: Walk around, take notes, weekly outings with employees and clients and implement new business lines based on output

2013 Trend 3: Slow Analog just as important as Mass Market Digital 
Summary Description: "[the] people and processes that made them [products], form an emotional connection that digital can’t match."
Innovation Model: having in house designers go out and  interface (paid by the company) to work with international superstar artists, designers, musicians, architects.
Acquisition Model: hire these designers to design for your firm. 



2013 Trend 4: "Worth is determined by philosophy, not price"
Summary Description: "If two competitors spend equal amounts on production, the one whose ideals resonate with the target market is the more valuable."
Innovation Model: Create articulate and specific core values in a replicitable manner in all aspects of imagery  materials, interactions, etc. Walk the walk and talk the talk
Acquisition Model: Find adjacent companies who know how to do this, purchase them no matter how small and hi-jack and inject. It's called copying, injecting, and "trending" and that's why it works.


2013 Trend 5: Narratives make information stick.
Summary Description: "A story out of chronological order is nearly impossible to remember, but information that has a beginning, a middle, and an end becomes something we can own, embrace, and share"
Innovation Model: If your firm does not have a history start creating one, people, the people who started, stayed and built the firm are the reason why people stay just as much as the products and the people that use them.
Acquisition Model: hire design superstars to design for your firm. 




2013 Trend 6: "Repair and Re-purpose"
Summary Description: "A growing consumer subculture that sees hacking and repairing as an indicator of true ownership. [Successful] firms will offer products and services that invite users to actively maintain and modify, winning loyalty and love along the way."
Innovation Model: How are hackers, designers, disruptors and deconstructionists using and LOVING your products. If they aren't, if you aren't showing it, other firms love will outpace you.
Acquisition Model: hire design, music, super user superstars to do this for you


2013 Trend 7: Technology is too fast, ignore it. 
Summary Description: "Only a slim population of early adopters counts pixels or processor speeds anymore. The rest of us just want to know what it’s like to use. Talk about experiences, not features. "
Innovation Model: R&D inside your firm, set aside 12-18% of net revenue and start a skunks works IP and commercialization division. If you not, someone else is doing it, else, see #6 and #5 above and start talking about superusers.
Acquisition Model: buy firms, students, designers, R&D or hackers to do this and bring their work in-house and brand it as your own. 



2013 Trend 8: "Flawless" isn't a reality, so make it one. 
Summary Description: "Despite the proliferation of features, more of us are realizing that what we really want is a phone that makes good calls, every single time. [So] fill in the gaps."
Innovation Model: Basic works, simple works, ie. Microsoft Metro: slimmed down to the core and the usable and thanks to "minimalism" it is accepted and desired. Capitalize on this. But it costs and your going to have to hire internally to do it.
Acquisition Model: buy this from designers who know how to make it seem simple - it's more complex than you know. 




2013 Trend 9: Brand Loyalty means no Decision Pain
Summary Description: "Once we believe that our values and choices align, we’re happy to leave choices to the brand that’s earned our trust, and shift some of the burden off our own shoulders. Communicating in familiar language, [means[ relax. “Go ahead,” and “ we've got you covered.”
Innovation Model: Make a model that encompasses all of the above and if you can't don't because hacking it together without consistency is like buying a 50's Fiat - your going to be fixing it constantly and spending a lot of money to do it.
Acquisition Model: buying smaller firms that have this down and injecting that DNA into your firm. 


2013 Trend 10: Human interaction is everything
Summary Description: "[Know] when customers need to be listened to or expect the nuanced expertise that only a person can provide. Automat[ing] everything [does not work]" 
Innovation Model: Talk on the phone more, stop texting, go to lunch, visit the client and their clients, build this into the DNA of the firm and stop using outsourced call centers in lands with employees that read off a script to save a dime. It will cost.
Acquisition Model: buy a firm that does this & bring it in house as soon as possible. 



2013 Trend 11: Gen Y is a Service Economy 
Summary Description: Don't ignore  "AirBnb vs. VRBO, or Etsy vs. eBay as Gen Y is defined by optimism, social engagement, and digital fluency, and these are attributes that can attract older customers as well. The key is to act as an enabler, not a controller" 
Innovation Model: Bring on innovation interns and create an in-house innovator in residence program and then pay them. This just might be tomorrows next great business unit and it's cheap to do when it's just a let's try it and see model.
Acquisition Model: buy the firm that someone else didn't monetize when they fired the person with the great idea who the firm couldn't commercialize due to internal politics, ego, or god knows what.

2013 Trend 12: Specialists create followers & followers create cash
Summary Description: "Trying to be everything to everyone is a losing proposition. As customers embrace their connoisseurship, they seek out brands that match it. " 
Innovation Model: Bring these brand leaders in-house as in the examples above and if you can't make your own based on employees that are firm & product leaders right inside your house. Your son or daughter is a star musician? Make them the star of the family. Same with your firm.
Acquisition Model: hire designers, musicians, artists who do this on an international scale and make them do it for your firm.

These top 12 trends are not our own, but make clear sense when implemented with the iGNITIATE disruptive design model which most firms ignore. Build or Buy or be Buried. 




Wednesday 17 April 2013

The Secret To Design Innovation? It's hidden in plain sight.

Digging with fixers is what separates the innovators from the also-rans. Thomas Edison did it. Reed Hoffman did it. Steve Jobs in the beginning did not but then quickly learned to. So who in your firm is sifting and then fixing what they find? 




Examples of this abound at Salone Del Mobile the worlds largest design fair in Milan however for the more academic desires examples can be seen with Right Ideas in the Wrong Places and then uncovering Secrets of Design Innovation via the key of observing those who are knee deep in the process and in situations of just do it to create differentiation in their work. While this is related to advanced R&D process where the output is different the principal still holds true. Some of the tools can be examined above and through the posts here and on the iGNITIATE blog. Happy fixing!




  

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Friday 5 April 2013

How to Beat the #1 Creativity Crusher to Innovation: You

Next week at the world's biggest design event, Salone Del Mobile, Milan you might be overwhelmed by miles & miles of the best designers in the world thinking your firm isn't innovating because of your CFO's R&D spending attitude or your Board's risk averse ways. You might feel you can't compete but here's how top innovators beat that feeling:




1) It's all self doubt, so cut that out and you've beaten it. How?
2) Remember why you create and innovate in the 1st place
3) Take small steps. or you're going to kill yourself in the process
4) Marvel at others' talent - because someone's always "better" than your firm
5) Re-frame your self-doubt & make it a monster to be slain
6) Surround yourself with supportive people and focus on your teams capabilities
7) Celebrate all that you create
8) Talk to someone you trust not just people that you pay to work for you
9) Find what puts you and your firm in the creative zone. If it's beer, drink more, if it's outings to customers, take more. Feed the fire and it grows warmer
10) Just go for it.
11) And here is Margarita Tartakovsky's article to give you a bit more flavor. 





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Tuesday 26 March 2013

Building $1B Consumer Co.: Find Long-Haul Founders, Don’t Fear Incumbents, Don't Kill Creativity

One billlllion dollars. Naturally you hear Dr. Evil's voice. But how to you build a Facebook, Apple, Linked-In? Find a zealot CEO, Don't even think about entrenched players and never stop creating. Natural you think? You'd be surprised. Here's how some of iGNITIATE's clients focus on not allowing failure into the mix.



The basic rules as set by Jacob Mullins at Shasta Ventures:
average age for insanely successful software start-ups with insane number of users is seven years. Why? Convincing people to join. If your making toilet paper or software the faster you are getting 100's of thousands if not 10's of millions of users with software goods, the better.
Be in it for the long haul — the better part of a decade and build out a team that is willing to dig in and fight hard.
- current internet software business models focus on advertising and subscription. Can you shift your physical product to utilize if not replicate these models? Then you've got a chance.
- for Physical products, e-commerce is the smallest exit multiple as reported by the Goldman Sachs Internet Technology Quarterly Report. So if your a product person, start thinking software if all you want is $$$
- the  most valuable companies have founders who have unusually strong and focused product vision such as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon, Pandora, Zynga where the founder was maniacal about the product and molded it and the company to his own vision. 
a strong common focus on end-user value is what matters: connecting friends; professional, networking and the job searches the gamified life, only the music you want to hear and this is just the software firms. 
- getting people to stick around: keeping users around for days, weeks, months and years after they signed up is the software world. but what of buying a chair? referrals, prizes for referrals, there are millions of ways to get more people using your products. 
invent an entirely new product category or reinvent a market with a better product? there is no answer but with the above and a maniacal founder you have all the ingredients to battle it out - and have no qualms, it is a battle every step of the way.
- often the most valuable products come from where an existing solution is just not up to snuff.
- and naturally, entrenched players? do it better or just tell everyone you are, either way, it is conviction that allows billion dollar companies to emerge

To not kill creativity Howard Jacobson summarizes: 
- Buffering (having plenty of toilet paper on hand, when you need it) stifles creativity, so folders with ideas and notebooks with snipits and sketches much be constantly filled and then evaluated, prototyped and never rested on the laurels of the filled book itself.  
- Artificial Deadlines keep people motivated even if it is a false alarm and the possibility of being empty, of having nothing to offer. 
- Utilizing Red Bull, coffee and self-deprivation for insane potential projects that have the capacity to shock and disrupt cause the mother of invention to appear. If it isn't used now, it can be used later
- Introducing the fear of the well drying up is a cautionary tale of continuing to demand from the team and the client so that new opportunities for creativity present themselves. 

Keep these on a sheet of paper in your CEO playbook or in your COO notebook to find, hire, and cultivate team members who embody these capabilities and one billllllion dollars is right around the corner. 





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Monday 4 March 2013

Desire a new billion dollar industry? A Real Innovation? Supercapacitor = No more Batteries


How many times have you heard the word innovation? How many times was it nothing more than advertising BS? Not this time. Industry proven Supercapacitors are here & originally made, "cooked" right inside a standard DVD burner. How will design be effected? Paper thin batteries that charge devices in seconds & electric vehicles in 3mins. Sound unbelieveable? Watch the video and the physicists behind it - real innovators. Schumpeter, the father of the definition of innovation would be proud.



Where does it all come from? UCLA high-energy-density graphene micro-supercapacitors researchers. What does it mean for products & design? Well supercapacitors are made of graphene, which is thin, flexible and super-strong. Did I say super thin? Super thin. Now your cell phone is 1/2 the size not to mention graphene is carbon & biodegradable and compostable. When you're done with the thing it dissolves right into the soil. Now that's innovation!

Thursday 28 February 2013

Infographics: Your savior in new product launches

It has happened to every designer,  entrepreneur & product developer & it even happens to international firms launching new services - the launch black hole. How is it that designers of new products, businesses and even services miss what's out there? The solution: not utilizing design & market infographics. How do world class companies do it? They do it here:



And, as shown in this infographic of every kitchen utensil made, by type the playing field is defined. More, there are any number of similar examples for every other product and even service out there. A quick look, the 10,000 meter view is what separates innovators from the also rans. How does your firm stack up in the way it looks for new opportunities?




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Thursday 21 February 2013

A Glass Life: everything is about to change

Digital Wallets, 3D printing of objects, food & even organic material, cloud computing, are all incredible however Google's Glass is poised to be the next big consumer market behavior changer & here's how you will use it everyday. 


Computer scientists and social anthropologists alike remember the work of Jaron Lanier one of the fathers of VR - Virtual Reality and Strange Days with Ralph Fiennes and his interactions with "The Hat" but not until Patty Mayes  demonstrated Sixth Sense at TeD viewed almost 7M times and  Pranav Mistry detailed Sixth Sense on TeD India viewed almost 10M times becoming the 3rd & 4th most viewed videos on TeD did the full integration of technology and wearable computing become close to real world. Now models are wearing it in commercials, nerds are coding with it on their heads and  jamming in guitar sessions after work. Soon it won't just be Google just like it wasn't just iOS and iPhones. Get ready for the Next Wave.




Wednesday 13 February 2013

Want Contagious Ideas & Products? Here's how.

Creating beautiful products & user friendly services is a challenge in itself. Having products that are contagious, sticky & drive ROI, that's the challenge, no matter if a firm is producing 500K units or an artist is producing a limited series. But how? Here's how.


1) Social Currency drives the car - we love making ourselves look good, make your product or service make people look good for using it and being involved with it. 
2) Triggers: if it relates to something else you know or do, it's going to stick
3) Emotion: If it trigger a base need it's going to stick, think Maslow's level 1
4) Public: the more people can add to it, pee on it, make it their own, the better
5) Practical Value: If it's something they can talk about at work & share, it's solid
6) Stories: the more it resonates with a story you can tell and retell the more it sells

More aptly are the specifics of Geoffrey More's Book "Crossing the Chasm" summarized here recognizing the need to focus on the early adopters and the expectations of these groups and the necessary mechanisms for driving further involvement by the standard public - the larger portion of any investors hockey stick and why the only way to achieve that is by continually pumping out new products as artists create painting as detailed in "The Longer Tail"




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