The Innovator's Method

Companies of all sizes are often opposed to taking risks. Taking risks is scary, and opens a company up to all kinds of unpredictable scenarios, which is why decision makers can end up being too frightened to take the initiative, when it finally comes to the crunch. So, when you come up with a new idea that involves a certain degree of risk, it can be challenging to gather support and enthusiasm from those who should endorse it. This defence mechanism, adopted by many managers, is the result of a traditional mentality that does not have much practice in dealing with uncertainty, and is unwilling to make room for bold choices. But as we all know, that venturing into uncharted territory is a must, if we want to evolve and keep up with the ever-changing, highly competitive business world. 

This is the reason why the authors came up with their Innovator’s Method, to help innovators promote and bring forward ideas that might not otherwise be accepted. The system includes five basic steps which involve coming up with an insight, understanding the customer’s problem, quickly finding a solution to that problem, developing a real prototype called “minimum awesome product”(MAP for short) to test the product (which is part of the solution phase) putting together a business model to introduce the product to the market, and finally scaling the model. 

This approach is inspired by startups which generally rely heavily on preliminary tests to confirm the efficacy of a product, and then make further decisions based on customer feedback. It is an agile and intuitive practice that saves the company from investing years in projects which often fail to take off once they are launched on the market. This method helps a company test the most revolutionary ideas immediately, without having to invest huge amounts of time and money.