Innovation is one of the essential parts of a brand’s identity. It helps to define the company, drives growth and can differentiate it from competitors. But what exactly is innovation? And what are the best practices for brands looking to innovate? Let’s find out how to imbibe a culture of innovation:
Co-creation
Co-creation is working with customers and users to create new solutions. This can be done through multiple methods, including:
- Co-designing products or services with end users.
- Conducting focus groups, interviews, or surveys to gain insights into customer needs.
- Creating an internal community for employees that fosters open and direct communication between them.
Design thinking
Design thinking is a process that emphasizes empathy for the end user and creating solutions that are both useful and desirable. It has been applied to various disciplines, including business strategy, software development and education.
The design thinking process is described as having five phases: empathize, define, ideate/diverge (often called “fuzzy front end”), validate/refine (the “tough love” phase) and implement or test it out in the real world.
Lean Startup
Lean startup is a methodology for developing new products and services. It’s based on the idea that progress is best achieved through frequent experimentation, with the rapid creation of minimum viable products (MVPs) and validated learning. The lean startup approach minimizes waste by identifying the minimum features needed to move forward. In this model, you develop your business model with a series of MVPs that quickly get out into the market before investing in large-scale production processes.
Open innovation
Open innovation is a process of pooling ideas and resources from outside the organization. This is used to solve problems, develop new products, and access new markets.
Open innovation is used to leverage the knowledge and expertise of others. To do so effectively, companies must have an effective process for finding partners and choosing which ones will be best suited for their needs.
Intuit experts suggest that “The importance of creating a culture of innovation shows in how it affects a company’s longevity and bottom line. Innovative companies have an edge in penetrating new markets and have a smoother time developing original concepts.”
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is a popular way to get feedback from a large group of people. For example, many brands use crowdsourcing to generate ideas and solve problems by asking their customers for help.
Crowdsourcing is also used to create products: users submit designs, drawings, or anything else they think will make the product better—and then users vote on which ones are best!
Crowdsourcing is very effective because it allows you to quickly get input from a lot of people in an organized way (so your team doesn’t waste time sifting through all the feedback).
However, keep in mind that crowdsourcing only works if you manage it well—otherwise, you could end up with too much data and no clear direction for your project or product!
As you can see, there are many ways a brand can innovate. The key is to find the best method for your organization and stick with it. If you try something new and it doesn’t work out, don’t give up on innovation altogether! Instead, just find another method that suits your needs better and try again.
