MODULE-4

PROCESS OF INNOVATION-I
• Idea generation- meaning and definition- process of idea
generation -New Knowledge-importance of new knowledge in
innovation -Tapping the ideas of customers-learning from the lead
users -Empathetic design -Invention factories and Skunkworks-
Open market innovation - the role of mental preparation-
encouraging idea generation process at organization - idea
generating techniques.
 IDEA GENERATION

• Idea generation is described as the process of creating, developing

and communicating abstract, concrete or visual ideas.
 IDEA GENERATION

• Idea generation or ideation is the act of forming ideas. It is a

creative process that encompasses the generation, development
and communication of new thoughts and concepts, which become
the basis of your innovation strategy.
PROCESS OF IDEA GENERATION
 NEW KNOWLEDGE

• knowledge recently acquired or currently being acquired

through observation, learning, thinking and experience
 IMPORTANCE OF NEW KNOWLEDGE IN INNOVATION
• Knowledge management assists in creating tools, platforms and processes for
tacit knowledge creation, sharing and leverage in the organization, which plays
an important role in the innovation process;
• Knowledge management assists in converting tacit knowledge to explicit
knowledge;
• Knowledge management facilitates collaboration in the innovation process;
• Knowledge management ensures the availability and accessibility of both tacit
and explicit knowledge used in the innovation process, using knowledge
organization and retrieval skills and tools such as taxonomies;
• Knowledge management ensures the flow of knowledge used in the
innovation process;
 IMPORTANCE OF NEW KNOWLEDGE IN
INNOVATION
• Knowledge management provides platforms, tools and processes to ensure integration
of an organization’s knowledge base;
• Knowledge management assists in identifying gaps in the knowledge base and
provides processes to fill in the gaps in order to aid innovation;
• Knowledge management assists in building competencies required in the innovation
process;
• Knowledge management provides organizational context to the body of knowledge in
the organization;
• Knowledge management assists in steady growth of the knowledge base through
gathering and capturing of explicit and tacit knowledge;
• Knowledge management provides a knowledge-driven culture within which
innovation can be incubated.
 TAPPING THE IDEAS OF CUSTOMERS-
LEARNING FROM THE LEAD USERS

• LEAD User (2.5%): In the product cycle, LEAD Users are still ahead of the
"early adopters". They are the pioneers among users whose special needs will
be relevant to the mass market in the future. LEAD users actively participate
in product development, often creating their own prototypes and
developments based on need.
LEAD USER
LEAD USERS
LEAD USERS
 LEAD USER
• 3M
• The lead user method was utilized in 3M’s Medical-Surgical Division to develop a breakthrough surgical drape
product. 3M assembled a team of lead users which included a veterinarian surgeon, a makeup artist, doctors from
developing countries and military medics.[5]
• Hilti AG
• Hilti utilized the lead user method to develop a simplified pipe hanger. Hilti put together a lead user group
consisting of lead layout engineers, researchers from construction departments of institutes, an engineer from a
professional organization in Bonn, and two engineers from municipal building departments.[6]
• Nortel
• Nortel utilized the lead user method to develop a new class of web applications for voice, video and data. Nortel
put together a group of lead users including law enforcement professionals, paramedics, military personnel, animal
trackers and professional storm trackers.[5]
LEARNING FROM LEARNING LEAD USERS

• Sense Worldwide
• Sense Worldwide has been featured in Wired Magazine [7] and Fast Company [8] for using Lead Users
such as dominatrices, Nigerian hackers, medical tourists and OCD sufferers in their innovation work.
• Local Motors
• Local Motors is the first car company to utilize the lead user method to co-create vehicles online with its
virtual community of designers, fabricators, engineers and enthusiasts. The world’s first vehicle
produced using co-creative method is the Local Motors Rally Fighter.
 PROCESS OF LEAD USERS

1.Lay the foundation. Identify the targeted markets and the type and level of innovations
desired by the organization’s key stakeholders. These stakeholders must be on board early.
2.Determine the trends. Talk to experts in the field about what they see as the important
trends. These experts are people who have a broad view of emerging technologies and
leading-edge application in the area being studied.
3.Identify and learn from the lead users. Use networking to identify users at the leading
edge of the target market and related markets. Develop relationships with these lead users
and gather information from them that points to promising ideas that could contribute to
breakthrough products. Use this learning to shape preliminary product ideas and assess
their business potential.
4.Develop the breakthroughs. The goal of this phase is to move preliminary concepts
toward completion. Host two-to three-day workshops with several lead users, a small
group of in-house marketing and technical people, and the lead user investigative
team.Work in small groups and then as a whole to design final concepts.
 EMPATHETIC DESIGN

• Empathic design is a user-centered design approach that pays attention to

the user's feelings toward a product. The empathic design process is
sometimes mistakenly referred to as empathetic design.
 EMPATHY AND INNOVATION

• Empathy is a central element of Design Thinking and UX. It’s fundamental in crafting design
solutions and creating products that are useful and meaningful. 
• Empathizing with our end-users allows us to understand the people we’re designing for, learn
about them, and meet their physical and emotional needs.
• Today, we’ll take a look at what empathy is, its importance in the Design Thinking framework,
and the most valuable sources of empathy. 
 EMPATHY AND INNOVATION
• As described by Dorothy Leonard and Jeffrey Rayport, empathetic design is a five-step process:3
• Observe. As described previously, company representatives observe people using products in their homes
and workplaces. The key questions in this step are:Who should be observed, and who should do the
observing?
• Capture data. Observers should capture data on what people are doing, why they are doing it, and the
problems they encounter. Because the data are frequently visual and nonquantifiable, use photographs,
videos, and drawings to capture the data.
• Reflect and analyze. In this step, observers return from the field and share their experiences with
colleagues. Reflection and analysis may result in returning people to the field for more observations.
• Brainstorm. This step is used to transform observations into graphic representations of possible solutions.
• Develop solution prototypes. Prototypes clarify new concepts, allow others to interact with them, and can
be used to stimulate the reactions of potential customers. Are potential customers attracted by the
prototypes? What alterations do they suggest?
 INVENTION FACTORY
Edison opened a research laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ, in 1876. This
site later become known as an "invention factory," since Edison and
his employees worked on several different inventions at any given
time there. It was there that Thomas Edison invented the
phonograph, his first commercially successful invention.
 INVENTION FACTORY

• Edison didn’t just invent at Menlo Park – he had been inventing for years
before and went on to invent for years after he left.  But while living there, he
invented the phonograph and incandescent light – two modern miracles
earning him the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park.”   The lab at Menlo
Park was a collaborative atmosphere, allowing Edison to develop a systemized
research for industrial applications.  This working environment led to what is
now the modern day Research & Development lab!  
• https://inventionfactory.org/
 SKUNKWORKS
An experimental laboratory or department of a company or institution,
typically smaller than and independent of its main research division.
The Skunk Works name was taken from the moonshine factory in the comic
strip Li'l Abner. The designation "skunk works" or "skunkworks" is widely
used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group
within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered
by bureaucracy, with the task of working on advanced or secret projects.
 SKUNKWORKS
• Origin of the term
• The term Skunk Works arose during Johnson's leadership of the jet fighter project.
• Because there was no space available at Lockheed Aircraft at the time, as its facilities
were fully occupied with its existing commitments to the U.S. war effort, Johnson's
team had to work in a rented circus tent next to a manufacturing plant that emitted
strong odors. Team engineer Irv Culver jokingly compared the smelly digs to "Skonk
Works," depicted in the newspaper comic strip "Li'L Abner" as a remote locale where
characters brewed a concoction of dead skunks and old shoes in a still.
• Culver's use of "Skonk Works" caught on with his colleagues on the team and
eventually morphed into Skunk Works.
OPEN MARKET INNOVATION
 OPEN MARKET INNOVATION
• By systematically opening their innovation borders to
vendors, customers, and even competitors, businesses are
increasing the import and export of novel ideas.
• Open-market innovation lets companies set realistic
market values for their internal ideas, helping them to
better define their core business.
• https://www.viima.com/blog/open-innovation-challenges
 OPEN-MARKET INNOVATION

• When Pitney Bowes learned a year ago that envelopes tainted with anthrax
had spread infection and death through the U.S. postal system, executives at
the company realized that both their customers and their core business were
under attack. Overnight, the world’s largest provider of mailing systems was
flooded with desperate requests from corporations and postal services seeking
a solution—any solution—that could protect people from the deadly spores.
Pitney Bowes’s core competence was in the area of secure metering systems
that protected postal revenue; the $4.1 billion market leader had nothing in its
pipeline to shield clients against a biological threat as unexpected as anthrax .
 OPEN-MARKET INNOVATION
• The company decided that the only way it could respond fast and effectively
to the market’s sudden shift was to look outside for ideas. Within a few
weeks, a special team of Pitney Bowes engineers gathered 82 promising
concepts from fields as diverse as food handling and military security. These
were quickly whittled down to a dozen ideas worth developing, ranging from
low-tech solutions—such as a downdraft table that sucks up the air around
letters and packages as they are opened—to expensive, high-end systems.
With help from the outside inventors, Pitney Bowes was able to introduce
new products and services to secure the mail against bioterrorism. These
include specialized scanners and an imaging system that can alert a mail
center, intended recipients, or security personnel to suspicious letters and
packages.
 OPEN-MARKET INNOVATION

• The crisis at Pitney Bowes offers a time-lapse example of a problem more and
more businesses are confronting: “How can we reach outside our own four
walls for the ideas we need?” A growing number of companies are exploring
the idea of open-market innovation—an approach that uses tools such as
licensing, joint ventures, and strategic alliances to bring the benefits of free
trade to the flow of new ideas. By systematically opening their innovation
borders to vendors, customers, and even competitors, businesses are
increasing the import and export of novel ideas. As they do so, they are
improving the speed, cost, and quality of innovation. What’s more, open-
market innovation lets companies set realistic market values for their internal
ideas, helping them to better define their core business.
 THE ROLE OF MENTAL PREPARATION

• Although it’s true that many ideas are generated unintentionally

through random observations, routine contacts with customers,
and even unintended laboratory results, it’s also true—to quote
Louis Pasteur—that “chance favors the prepared mind. ”A prepared
mind is more likely to formulate a problem-solving idea or
recognize an opportunity (see “A Lab Accident Leads to a Major
New Product”).
 THE ROLE OF MENTAL PREPARATION
• Preparation is often cited as the first step in the creative process that leads to
innovation. To prepare themselves for idea generation, would-be innovators should
immerse themselves in the problem at hand. As suggested by one expert on
managing creativity, they should do the following:7
• Search the literature.
• Look at all sides of the problem.
• Talk with people who are familiar with the problem.
• Play with the problem.
• Ignore the accepted wisdom.
 ENCOURAGING IDEA GENERATION PROCESS
AT ORGANIZATION
• Rewards
• Reward those who generate ideas with pay or promotions or both.
It’s a clear signal that good ideas are important. Monetary rewards
appear to be more effective when they are performance based and
when they give employees a personal stake in organizational
success. Many innovative companies, 3M being one example, use
dual career ladders—technical and managerial—to reward
innovative behavior. They realize that not everyone is cut out to be
a manager, nor do some people wish to be.
ENCOURAGING IDEA GENERATION PROCESS AT
ORGANIZATION
• A Climate of Innovation
• Management determines the organizational climate. Innovative organizations have these
characteristics:
• Management sends a clear message that the well-being of the company and its employees
depends on continuous innovation.
• People aren’t afraid to try or suggest new things.
• No one feels a sense of entitlement for just showing up for work.
• There is a visceral discomfort with current success—a nagging sense that it may not last.
• People rise and fall on their merits and contributions.
• Employees are outward looking:They seek ideas and best practices among competitors,
through professional contacts, and in other industries.
ENCOURAGING IDEA GENERATION PROCESS
AT ORGANIZATION
• Hire Innovative People
• Some people are more innovative than others. Ed Roberts and
Alan Fusfeld identified the following as personal characteristics of
idea generators:8
• Expert in one or two fields
• Enjoy doing innovative work
• Usually individual contributors
• Good problem solvers
• Find new and different ways of seeing things
ENCOURAGING IDEA GENERATION PROCESS AT
ORGANIZATION
• Encourage the Cross-Pollination of Ideas
• Periodically reassign technical specialists to different work teams.
• Send people to professional conferences and scientific convocations.
• Set up an intracompany knowledge management system—this makes knowledge and experience
captured in one area available to everyone.
• Sponsor events that bring outside experts to your company to give lectures and workshops—what they
have to share often catalyzes ideas within the company.
• Arrange periodic customer site visits.
• Arrange field trips to observe best practices in other industries.
• Meet with local inventors and entrepreneurs in your field.
• Seek out consultants with different perspectives.
• Seek out university professors on sabbatical to temporarily join your group or participate in
brainstorming sessions.
ENCOURAGING IDEA GENERATION PROCESS
AT ORGANIZATION
• Support for Innovators
• Management support need not—and often should not—take the form of formal funding and staff
resources, particularly in the early stages. But senior managers can provide the resources that
innovators need to “bootleg” unofficial development of their ideas: unused space in which to run
experiments, small sums for equipment and part-time help, and time away from regular duties in
which to pursue an idea.
• A negative view of ideas that don’t serve existing customers. 
• The new idea threatens the current business.
• The market potential seems too small relative to the size of the existing business.
 TWO IDEA-GENERATING TECHNIQUES
• Brainstorming
• Most readers have had some experience with brainstorming. Effective brainstorming is
guided by five key principles:
• Focus. Brainstorming should concentrate on a particular problem and be bounded by real-
world constraints.
• Suspended judgment. All judging should be suspended while ideas are being generated. Even
the wildest ideas should be encouraged.
• Personal safety. Participants should be assured that unpopular ideas or ideas that threaten
the status quo will not provoke recriminations.
• Serial discussion. Limit the discussion to one conversation at a time and keep it focused on
the topic.
• Build on ideas. Try to build on the ideas of others wherever possible.
 TWO IDEA-GENERATING TECHNIQUES
• VISIONING The visioning approach asks people to imagine, in detail, a long-term, ideal
solution and the means of achieving it.The goal is to break free of the ingrained practicality
that inhibits innovative thought. Once you’ve generated several ideas that would constitute
that ideal solution, ask what it would take to make those ideas happen.
• Generating wishes
• Exploring the possibilities
• The Ideal Scenario
• Time Machine
• MODIFYING
• EXPERIMENTING 
 VISIONING
• Catchball Here’s how it works. An initial idea is “tossed” to collaborators
for consideration, as in figure 3-1. The idea might be a new strategic goal,
a new product, or a way to improve some work process. Whoever
“catches” the idea assumes responsibility for understanding it, reflecting
on it, and improving it in some way. That person then tosses the
improved idea back to the group, where it is again caught and improved.
And around it goes in a cycle of gradual improvement. As people
participate, they develop a sense of shared ownership and commitment
to the idea that takes form.
CATCHBALL
THANK YOU