Innovation Process
Your Vision + Our Engineering. Before your next initiative, answer its framing question honestly: are we extending a system we understand, or inventing one we do not?
Innovation is a wicked problem. The viable solution is often unknown until it is already in widespread use, which means you cannot plan your way to it the way you would plan an extension of something you already understand.
Inventing a system you do not yet understand and extending one you do are different jobs, and treating them the same is the most common and most expensive mistake I see leaders make. The process I have refined over fifteen years is built for the first kind. Understand the real nature of the problem, diverge to generate genuine possibilities, converge on the few worth testing, and learn in models before you commit to code. The goal is not to eliminate uncertainty. It is to spend it well.
What I’ve made
Your Vision + Our Engineering
The three complexities, and why innovation needs a different posture than feature work.
My workshop, “From Ideas to Action: A Hands-On Innovation Workshop”
Bring an idea and work it through divergence, desirability/feasibility/viability, and concrete next steps. See Talks.
My leadership talk, “Engaging and Aligning Teams for Innovation”
Why innovation is a wicked problem and how to decompose it, move faster, and increase the odds a vision becomes real. See Talks.
“Diverge, Then Converge” (workshop)
The divergence-and-convergence discipline at the heart of the process. See Talks.
Artificial Intelligence Radically Changes Viability in Innovation (2024)
How AI moves the viability line and reopens ideas that were not economical a year ago.
Viewing Product and Service Failures as an Opportunity (2015)
Failure as a source of learning in the early stages, framed inside build-measure-learn. The instinct to prevent failure stifles innovation; the better move is to resolve it fast and learn from it.
What I recommend
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries. Build, measure, learn. The foundational case for validated learning over upfront certainty.
Incorruptible
Eric Ries, whose Lean Startup reshaped how we build. Incorruptible takes on what comes after the launch: why good companies drift from their founding values, and how governance and long-term thinking keep mission intact as they grow. The companion to the build-it questions on this page, since building something that lasts is its own discipline. New to it? Start with this video introduction.
Sprint
Jake Knapp. A five-day structure for getting a team to diverge, converge, and test with real users fast.
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey Moore. Why winning the early enthusiasts is not the same as winning the market, and what viability looks like over time.
Just Evil Enough
Alistair Croll and Emily Ross. Subversive go-to-market for the attention economy: the unconventional, just-this-side-of-the-line tactics underdogs use to get noticed and gain traction. A useful counterweight to the build-it questions, since a viable idea still has to break through. New to it? Start with this video introduction.
Business Model Generation
Alexander Osterwalder. A shared canvas for keeping a team aligned as you define and refine the model behind a product.
The AI Daily Brief (podcast)
My daily input on what is actually shipping in AI, which keeps the viability conversation current.
More on my 2017 Innovator’s Reading List. The term “wicked problem” itself comes from Rittel and Webber’s 1973 work, if you want the academic root.
Before your next initiative kicks off, decide honestly: are we extending a system we understand, or inventing one we do not? The right process for one is the wrong process for the other.