Strategy Innovation
Learn
The next phase in strategy innovation after aligning phase is called Exploring Phase. To start of this process we need to understand that business is about creating value for someone (customer) and in delivering that value, creating value for ourselves. Businesses do not exist without customers. Customers do not purchase goods and services unless those goods and services deliver value. Therefore a logical starting point for exploring new business opportunities is to meet with potential customers and understand their perception of value.
Unlearn
It seems to be an easy process to identify new business opportunities through surveys by just asking what customers want and give them what they ask for. This approach could still be effective in some industries where talking to customers will yield important information that can enhance a company’s business in some way. However customer interactions frequently lead to changes that are more incremental in nature, not innovative. The reason for this is that customer could only provide feedback on what they like or do not like about your current product. They could not speculate on what innovative new products or services will better suit their needs than today’s products. They are unable to tell us what products or services are missing from their lives, waiting for a company to invent them and make them happy. In short, what I had unlearned was we cannot rely on customers to tell us what innovative products or services they would like to see created that will meet their needs. They will not design innovative new products for us.
Relearn
Because most customers cannot describe the next generation products or services we are looking to develop, it is important for us to understand their “unarticulated needs”. An unarticulated need can be considered something that has value to a customer. To uncover this need we could use a method call ValueProbes. They are discussion aimed at exploring customer perception of what is valuable to them, to help them articulate some of their unarticulated needs. The key is to ask a different set of questions or use different techniques rather than straight Q&A.
Learn
The next phase in strategy innovation after aligning phase is called Exploring Phase. To start of this process we need to understand that business is about creating value for someone (customer) and in delivering that value, creating value for ourselves. Businesses do not exist without customers. Customers do not purchase goods and services unless those goods and services deliver value. Therefore a logical starting point for exploring new business opportunities is to meet with potential customers and understand their perception of value.
Unlearn
It seems to be an easy process to identify new business opportunities through surveys by just asking what customers want and give them what they ask for. This approach could still be effective in some industries where talking to customers will yield important information that can enhance a company’s business in some way. However customer interactions frequently lead to changes that are more incremental in nature, not innovative. The reason for this is that customer could only provide feedback on what they like or do not like about your current product. They could not speculate on what innovative new products or services will better suit their needs than today’s products. They are unable to tell us what products or services are missing from their lives, waiting for a company to invent them and make them happy. In short, what I had unlearned was we cannot rely on customers to tell us what innovative products or services they would like to see created that will meet their needs. They will not design innovative new products for us.
Relearn
Because most customers cannot describe the next generation products or services we are looking to develop, it is important for us to understand their “unarticulated needs”. An unarticulated need can be considered something that has value to a customer. To uncover this need we could use a method call ValueProbes. They are discussion aimed at exploring customer perception of what is valuable to them, to help them articulate some of their unarticulated needs. The key is to ask a different set of questions or use different techniques rather than straight Q&A.
1 comment:
Good recollection of learning Brendan. Your challenge will be using the learning perpectives to tackle workplace issues at Pfizer.
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