Disruption from new market regimes, the contextual age propagation, the wide access to powerful bottom-up tools…may force innovators to reinvent development and marketing. Even solitaire quant innovations aren't speaking on their own any more.
Marketing is about telling great stories, better development is about telling better stories to ourselves and our innovations ARE stories…
At the beginning it's only you and your ideas...
Hundred thousand hours
It's always the same dilemma: although you have access to great development and deployment tools, market analysis material…are you good enough (financially strong enough) to make use of the opportunity? No, we don't fear the work, we need to face criticism and failure…and stuff like that.
There're constraints. Knowing that your innovation will finally take 100.000 hours you need to deliver a multimillion-Euro-revenue thing.
What helps is making your innovation minimal viable for a minimum viable audience first…a release 1.0 with the highest return at risk…a smaller thing that has a big effect...that sets the stage for the multimillion thing.
Developing without context
There're this people who do everything right with seemingly low effort. How poor must I feel to be forced to make all that analysis, seeking optionality and choosing evolutionary approaches?
You need to build a core of your work…and if you haven't built quant innovations before, and you aren't sure, whether you belong to the rare no-wrong-doers, you might think of developing a technology stack first…technology that isn't devoted to a context at first place.
Borrowing ideas
It's not where you take things from - it's where you take things to, Jean Luc Goddard. What does "borrowing" mean in a framework of complex multidimensional interaction patterns.
A few years ago, The European Commission launched a task force: Open Innovation…it's about an innovation-building culture emphasizing on in-licensing and out-licensing…create seamless interaction and mash-up for ideas…
But this is institutionalized...the same unspoken principle has been established online…
Don't Do It Alone
If you want to change, you need connections and alliances in early stages. This goes far beyond the agile development cycles.
At this time you need to have the big controlling idea that describes how the innovation meets the desires, objectives, requirements…From the controlling ideas we derive our key messages. If we understand them we can put the big takeaway into a few words.
If you promote them, you may find people reference them in their promotions…they're potential development, integration or re-marketing partners…or even the first featured clients.
Find Multipliers
Select partners forming a long lasting bond. How to select them?
On purpose: innovators often serve for the benefit of integrators who serve for the benefit of special market segments….you possibly know that you'll not reach that market segments easily on your own?
Obvious: you may know people or institutions that are recognized voices in your technology corner, selected industrial circles...You want them to be a neutral instance for creating awareness for your innovation.
Don't forget, this points are for early stages…they help you to optimize market risk by understanding the stressors, optionality…
Understanding opportunity
After you've decided to make the whole thing, the question becomes how to make it interesting for a wider audience. You still want to focus-->stretch-->expand, but you know it's worthy of more than a niche product. But will others feel the same way about it?
Survey the whole landscape for your idea and your innovation. Check how good they match…
Create a map that outlines the ideas others have had similar to yours…is anybody else planning to make it a multimillion thing?
The Big Idea innovation
Are the users of the innovation excited about the subject matter or how-to build complex things or workflows solving progressive problems, simulating a real behavior…?
Big Idea innovations do usually combine the research, how-to and workflow type all serving to create an integrated experience. It's typically a story and a thriller if it's quantitative…
Right to walk it through The Innovation Mesh.
Will it work and sell according to your expectations, within the constraints, mining most of the opportunities…paying back?
