Dan Saffer’s Editorial in BusinessWeek
by Andrew CrowDan Saffer wrote an article on innovation for BusinessWeek. Available online (subscription required) and at your local newsstand. (Link goes to paid content area of their site.)
Innovation is traditionally understood as a combination of insight and invention, with insight being the “Aha!” moment and invention being the company’s muscle to make it happen. This is all well and good, but one crucial aspect of the definition is missing: the ability to judge the inspiration and determine whether it is worthwhile to spend the company’s resources on the invention. Without this judgment, innovation is just The New, and new isn’t always better. It’s a louder sizzle, not a juicier steak. For innovation to be truly important, it needs to resonate with consumers. Insights need to be derived from the unmet needs and desires of people, not simply the company’s feeling that it needs to innovate.
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February 26th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Nicely said, Dan!
February 28th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Bravo. And: not only user/consumer needs and desires, but I’d love to see us start considering broader impacts, such as the cost of manufacturing, resource depletion/creation, pollution, additions to landfill, etc. While this largely bypasses those of us designing for a screen-based world, the image of the Crest Whitestrips at the MX Conference the other week, juxtaposed against Dell’s and Jennie Winhall’s focus on the environment, still has me shuddering. Sure, Crest innovated and created a new market, but at what cost? Do we really need whiter teeth, by way of adding a lot of pollution to the air and plastic to the dump?