I have begun my PhD journey into the world of innovation methods. I have been thinking about what I think innovation is. My first working definition is the creation of a new experience. I should first qualify that I am using the word experience as a port-manteau kind of catch-all term that envelopes everything from products or artifacts, to systems, or services to something that can only be described as an experience such as cirque de soleil or Disneyland (for one take on types of innovation see doblin’s ten types). When I say new I mean some facet of it is new, it may only be the packaging, or branding, or it may be a feature, or it may be the way it is marketed or a combination of some of these or other things I haven’t mentioned but are equally applicable.
Methods are activities, processes, or tools used while innovating. I haven’t worked on a good working definition for methods, and am open to suggestions of course.
One of the first challenges of my project is that innovation happens all over an organization, and Philips is certainly no exception to this. There are people in traditional R&D functions (like where I am in Philips Research) and people in various business units (or sectors as we like to call them at Philips) as well as people in strategy, marketing, marketing intelligence, and design. Just getting a handle on what all these various departments are doing is a massive undertaking, so I’ve begun interviews all over Philips to start understanding what is happening and to digest this information. At the same time I am trying to make sure that my present work adds some value to my department before I am ready to start producing some kind of intervention into a process with a new process or training or whatever it is I will choose to do.
Of course the other thing that is constantly on my mind is that this is not just about Philips, but rather any organization, so I am working on reaching out to other organizations to see how they are doing this and how it works for them. I certainly will need help to do this, so anyone reading this, if you work in an organization and would be willing to talk to me about innovation methods, please contact me.
The last thing of course is targeting my findings for publication in various places. Of course various design-oriented venues come pretty high on my list, I’ve considered some communications venues (as communication between parts of an organization are so important in innovation), and I’m still actively looking for other high quality venues for either journal articles or or conference presentations (and certainly for the next 2 years or so doctoral consotiums or other similar venues where the feedback and interaction is high would make a lot of sense). Again I welcome any all all suggestions for these.
Aaron,
There is a great deal of literature on the subject that may be of interest to you. Dr. O’Connor has been analyzing firms for the last 10 years on innovation methods as they relate to breakthrough innovation. She has written 2 books that are a must read, if you have not gotten to them yet. Good luck on the research, I look forward to learning more.
@remyarteaga
I like your blog a lot. Will read more. Keep up to briliant work on it. Thanks