Week 35, 2018

Innovation: Needfinding, Ideation, and Prototyping

Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash

Each week I share three ideas for how to make work better. But this week is special. There are four ideas. Specifically, four steps that my colleagues and I use to turn unmet needs into tangible actions.

Let’s dig in.

1. Needfinding

Needfinding refers to primary and qualitative research in which the researcher observes and interacts with people to (1) learn about their goals and values so as to (2) uncover latent and unmet needs. It’s a necessary first step in any innovation process.

2. Ideation

Having identified a latent need, it’s time to consider the myriad of ways that need could be addressed. There’s never just one answer. And so to hone in on one idea, we employ the four steps of ideation covered last week: frame, diverge, explore, and converge.

3. Prototyping

Next, it’s time to put our chosen solution to the test. And to do this, we must turn intangible needs/ideas into tangible prototypes with which our intended audience can interact. We’ll iterate until we’ve debunked or validated problem/solution fit.

4. Planning (BONUS)

No innovation process is complete without a feasible plan of action. And that’s why we must end our process with some good old-fashioned planning. Specifically, we’ll work to balance business and customer needs to ensure a favorable outcome

”Ideas are a multiple of execution,” says Derek Sivers. I tend to agree. It’s one thing to identify needs and come up with possible solutions. It’s quite another to also execute on said needs. Neither is easy. But in order to create value, we must do both. And these four steps help us do just that.

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