This edition of the 𝘼𝙜𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 ™ Newsletter is for 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 who want to substantially increase the chance that an idea they have for a new solution will become an innovation.
Everyone is interested in more innovation. But it is only the true innovators that are motivated to work with the uncertainties and risks of innovating. A primary factor inhibiting the desire to innovate is the belief that innovating is a complex and complicated undertaking characterized by high effort, high risk, and low reward. Various methodologies have been prescribed to reduce the perceived complex and complicated nature of innovating, such as “Design Thinking” and “Stage – Gate Development” processes. But the complex and complicated core of innovating is rooted in changing the status quo, not in the processes applied to develop new solutions.
In this edition of the newsletter, we explore what the status quo really is, and how to increase the odds for inventing and introducing an innovation from day 1.
When a new product, service, and / or process changes the status quo, it is called an Innovation. The status quo is an amalgam of the situations and conditions comprised by the Market Environment, the Solution Environment, and the Business Environment.
The status quo is both complicated (i.e. difficult to work with) and complex (i.e. difficult to understand). Each of the three environments comprising the status quo are complicated in their own right. The interaction of the three environments is complex.
The Complicated Nature of the Three Environments
The Market Environment includes the Customers, Users, and the Job-Being-Done.
The Solution Environment includes the Solution Specifications and the Basis of Competition that differentiates available solutions from each other.
The Business Environment includes the Business Capabilities and the Business Architectures for each of the competitors supplying solutions and competing for business in the Market.
Establishing clarity for the factors in each environment is necessary for defining the elements contributing to the status quo.
The Complex Nature of the Three Environments
The complexity comes about because each of the three environments interacts and influences the other two.
The Market and Solution Environments create the conditions where the combination of Jobs-Being-Done and the solution benefits and trouble yield the User Experience.
The Solution and Business Environments create the conditions yielding the performance elements of the Business Experience.
The Business and Market Environments create the conditions that establish the segmented Market Experience.
Changing The Status Quo
The status quo is defined by the User, Business, and Market Experiences. Changing the three experiences is the goal of innovating. By describing the status quo of the current state, based upon clarifying the factors included in each environment and specifying the experiences related to the environment interactions, the Innovator can anticipate different future state status quos. The difference between a potential future state and the current state status quo defines the Problems-Worth-Solving that is the Innovator’s true skill.
Conclusion
The status quo is both complex and complicated. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of it is often deprioritized or neglected . But whether you understand it or not, it is where every innovating project starts. Understanding the status quo is the crucial difference that transforms the possibility of a new solution into the probability of an innovation.
🌱
Experiences
Complex and complicated
Change the status quo
-Innovation Haiku, Kevin A Fee, April 3, 2024