Remember, The Innovation Mesh helps innovation marketers to answer some fundamental questions - systematizing the assessment. I've introduced The Quant Innovation Spreadsheet and The Quant Innovation Mesh filled in for UnRisk Capital Manager.
The characteristics of quant innovations
Most of the systems that require quantitative treatment (computation) have a clock, flows, events, transformations, massive information requirements…Most of the problems suggest a function-oriented decomposition and the bottom up composition of computational tasks, based on modeling, control, simulation, optimization, cognition, interplay…characterized by object transformations and events…on each level.
Both schemes are devoted to this quant innovations, assuming that they represent an external type: Thriller (dealing with uncertainty, risk, speculative reality…).
Thrillers, their most important units are tasks, have usually a beginning hook, a middle build and a payoff. Their quantitative approach suggests that they need preprocessors, processors and post processors and all of them need constructors, the management of progressive problems and solutions…quite a nested structure.
Both schemes are coupled and describe special Innovation Meshes in miniature…represented as one page documents. They give us coordinates to map the movements of objects and actors…
Innovation is about change
Innovators want to change the underlying systems that are causing major problems of our lives and time…at a society, sector, institution, individual level…
To manage a change you need to know what the reaction to it is. The first reaction is usually shock and denial, in a next phase a change may even cause a depression, before the change becomes accepted and will be integrated.
Again, I used the metaphor of a thriller to explain what kind of innovations may be compelling and candidates for the classics of the future in their field…
Actors at thrillers work against bad actions and the clock
Consequently, The Innovation Mesh needs a time and event dimension, where changes of the innovation as whole are described in their positive and negative values…If the innovation is flow dominated you may want to describe the changes along a task axes.
Describe the external and internal values (related to events)…it may look like an info-graphic with wave type trajectories showing whether you have interim solutions…and where you have polarity and turning points.
Mapped into one picture
In general, tasks in quant innovations use methodologies, models, solvers…and interpreters that need to be validated…but there are also big principle traps that may accumulate…
A rough graphical representation helps showing whether the flows are logically sound, the timing and synchronization points are right…you'll see possible break points that can sabotage the innovation.
This post concludes the Innovation Mesh episode for a while…
p.s. If the innovation does not work so well…it's easier to fix it, if the objects, models and methods are organized orthogonally, you write in a domain specific, symbolic language, if inherently parallel engines implement it, if you offer a data framework, deployment services…in short, if you are able to make transformative developments atop a technology stack.
