Innovation today is the key to most successes. Think Apple, think Google, think Post-it, they all innovated. This talk though started with examples of not 'real' innovations, but re-innovations, where people took existing ideas, refined them and brought them to public in a revolutionary way. Her examples of apple's mouse, iPod wheel and snow board were surprise to me.
She then moved on to actual strategies to get that idea.
First thing she told was look at competitors, see what they are not good at and leverage that!
Strength, Opportunities, Weakness, Threats is the map to fill.
Look at customers, why do they yell at your customer service. Talk to non-customers. Its relief to know that Google really does that. We as engineers of teams are very much encouraged to closely work with customer support.
Current customer pain, customer losses, new needs, competitive pressure are the things to look for to identify a opportunity.
Identify early influencers who know what can improve a average product and make it great. She gave example of this guy who converted his webcam mounted on rails around the house and he wanted it to move up, down etc. Gave logitech the idea.
"Influencers blog !!!" and they are also slightly wacky, but they have that new idea. You need to go find them and talk to them.
Innovation does not happen when you are going 100 miles an hour. You need reserve, make some white space, keep reserve for thinking.
This was a really good, useful and engaging talk. I am glad I stayed for this session while more people have left. GHC needs to advertise these session more to get people to stay on!
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