Why you pick THAT product time and again
Have you wondered why you pick certain products like your phone over and over again? And why some products like the online workout program are never opened? Today we dive into a crucial thing from well designed products and how we can apply it to our world as innovators and strategists.
First, a tangent to the world of swimming.
The swimming competitions in the 2000s were a heady time. It seemed like every competition broke a few world records. It was the age of body suits and every competition brought about innovations that helped shave off milliseconds in the race. While they're not allowed - setting 25+ world records in a single competition can set off alarm bells - because it kind of shifts the focus from the swimmer to who has access to the latest swim gear. However, ask the swimmers if they would like these suits today I believe you'll get a resounding YES. Why?
To go fast you must reduce friction.
That's the age old principle at work whether we are racing cars or trying to make my paper airplane outlast my kids'. Not to get into the technicalities but drag is a real drag on our progress. How do we think of this for innovation projects? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let's dive further.
The first step is to agree that progress is a series of tiny steps strung together.
Unless you're Tom Hanks in Forest Gump, you don't run a marathon on the first day. You will build up, meaningfully, over weeks. Only when your runs are regular AND you have put in the body of work, will you finish the marathon. It's easy to sign up. The magic is when you complete it.
Innovation relies on a series of activities done regularly.
This includes reading, pondering, brainstorming, whiteboarding, and discarding a diversity of thoughts. You can't assign once day in a year at a resort and hope that'll leave you with the next breakthrough. You have to work on this as a team on a regular cadence - weekly or bi-weekly intervals work well.
That's it!?? That's totally doable. So, what's the problem?
Think of your online workout program that's collecting virtual dust. What's preventing you from going on a 20 min workout? Instead, we while away scrolling on our feeds for 20 mins.
Let's be honest about what is a 20-min workout.
This simple workout requires you to change into gym gear, swap shoes, find a spot to exercise, shower, and change back. That's FRICTION!
The second step is to look at all the overheads for your Innovation activities.
Let's pick brainstorming as an example. If your session requires someone to prepare slides, gather research reports, arrange snacks, find an off site venue... you get what I'm saying. This is friction where the team will spend more time on the packaging than the gift.
You must eliminate as many unnecessary elements to function at a regularity.
Book the conference room with calendar recurrence. Eliminate the need for slides. Whiteboarding works.
At the individual level, keep a pen and book handy for your ideas. I prefer the phone. I know someone that stores his ideas in a shoe box.
Your approach has to work with the least amount of energy.
Scrolling on social media is so seamless that it doesn't take much effort at all. Look at anything you do frequently and you'll realise how friction has been reduced to a minimum. That's what we need to do for innovation.
To recap:
Innovation requires a regular cadence
Eliminate friction points from the activities
Before I let you go, what are the top two products that you use multiple times a day? Just hit reply and let me know.
That's it for today.
Happy Ideating!
Hemang.