3 Steps to avoid squashing disruptive innovation ideas
We’ve been thinking lately about this perennial conundrum our clients face: How to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive in front-end innovation while simultaneously lowering risk and building confidence in ideas.
Building confidence in disruptive ideas isn’t easy, which is why the most exciting ideas tend to get squashed. Big companies aren’t entrepreneurs—there’s a lot more at stake. It’s so much simpler to stick with what has worked in the past, to conform ideas to fit the existing model, instead of championing break-out ideas and taking the first steps to test them in the marketplace.
What can we do? Here are three steps to consider.
1. Retailer interviews. Oftentimes we include conversations with retail buyers and category managers in front-end innovation work. Doing this helps builds confidence in break-out ideas, even those that are seemingly “out there.” A retail perspective can illuminate margin hurdles, shopper behavior, and where the retailer wants to see their category go in the future. Plus, any issues they bring up can be addressed sooner than later, saving time and money in the process.
2. Bring ideas to life. Our philosophy is to make things as real as possible as fast as possible. You don’t have to make the innovation perfect, you just need an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) to be able to test its possibilities. For a lot of our clients, food or product development typically comes after several rounds of idea testing. Ideas are initially passed around as a couple of lines of text on a page and bounced off consumers as a concept, not as an actual product. We have found that getting an actual product into the hands of consumers—a product that they can lift, smell, taste, swirl, etc.—is a much better way to test ideas and move forward with the best innovations.
3. Push the boundaries. In our experience, many ideas die because they are either too safe or too far out. Consumers have boundaries for what they would consider realistic and appropriate for their favorite brands. To support disruptive, nascent, or cutting-edge ideas, the next step is to find consumer boundaries, then push up to them and past them. We like to propose multiple ideas that push existing boundaries, then back them up a step, and maybe another step. Say you're showing them a something that has chili peppers in it. They might respond, “Oh no, no, chili peppers are taking it too far, but black beans with feta cheese, that sounds delicious.”
It’s far better to take an absolutely “out there” idea and make it slightly more reasonable until you get consumers’ heads nodding than it is to only test ideas that are a step or two away from where you are today.
Want to navigate disruptive innovation better this year? Reach us at hello@mission-field.com