5 Lessons I've Learned About Innovation in 2019

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

We are always learning and growing as we go about our work. We try new things, fail and try again. Sometimes we try something that becomes wildly successful and then learn to manage the new-found notoriety and opportunity.

Whatever you have been through in 2019, you have learned some important lessons. Here are the 5 lessons about Innovation I have learned this year:

1. Doing something creates a different kind of knowing. It has been fascinating to realize that all the head knowledge in the world doesn't mean that you don't need to actually try it in order to learn. This year I noticed several times when I knew something academically but needed to try it in real life in order to test whether my head knowledge played out in the real world. 
2. Your customer isn't always easy to get close to. In innovation circles, you hear the mantra "Get close to your customer" regularly. There is an assumption that people are ready to share with you the keys to creating solutions that they will fall in love with. Sometimes this is true. But several times this year, I had a key customer segment that proved very challenging to connect with in a meaningful way. That didn't necessarily mean that they were resistant to talking. Sometimes it had to do with schedules and other times it had to do with not understanding what I was doing. Whatever the reason, I'm learning that it can take some serious effort to get proximity to your customer. 
3. Tech tools today make engagement so much easier. As I was launching my innovation prototype this year, I was amazed at the tight integration that was possible between so many tech tools that help you to present a clean customer experience to your audience. With very little money I was able to integrate a donor management system, customer service, e-commerce, website, email newsletter and more. Just 5 years ago, this would have been clunky and cumbersome. 
4. The difference between price tolerance and perceived value is real. As I have played around with pricing for multiple prototypes this year, I realize that people have an idea in their head about what something is worth and this idea is very hard to shake. Once a value has been established, then no matter what the perceived value is of the new product, it can be very challenging to for a customer to change what they are willing to pay. 
5. What you want to measure doesn't always materialize. In any good innovation experiment you are testing a variety of factors. But just because you want to test them, doesn't mean they will present themselves in a helpful way. I had to modify some of my learning objectives on the fly as I realized what I was really testing, rather than what I thought I would test. This flexibility in the innovation process is critical. 

What lessons have you learned this year from your innovation work?