Finding Your Innovation Sweet Spot Summary by Catrin Aronsson 2015-09-10 ME2603

Successful product Customer interest + Within company position and capacity  Successful product?

The wrong way? ”Think outside the box” Make unpredictable products that matches the customer need Gives impractical products Will flop

Instead! Systematic inventive thinking Disciplined ”think inside the box” Start with an existing product (not customers unmet needs) ”Don’t just listen to the voice of your customer; listen to the voice of your product”

What says the product? Essential elements Environment Color Usefulness Temperature Type of user

Five innovation patterns Subtraction (reduction) Remove component or attribute Multiplication Quality change of existing product Division Look at the parts of existing product Task unification New assignment of task to existing product Attribute dependency change New, modified or dissolved dependency of product to its environment

How to do it? Break down product List product attributes, physical and other aspects Use patterns to rearrange elements + environment  Virtual product List potential function Customer need Benefits Drawbacks Challenges Capacity?

What pattern? High complexity products  Subtraction Cost controlling  Unification Classic product development  Multiplication Attribute dependency change: Most fruitful but difficult to apply! List internal and external attributes Find dependencies, or lack thereof, between internal/external attributes

Why success? Brainstorming can be narrow-minded The human brain works best when the problem is defined Simply ask these questions: What is essential? What can be rearranged, removed, or replicated in new ways?