“The unknown competitor that you haven't had a chance to think up yet is a viscous antagonist fighting against what it takes to create success.” This type of psychological construct is often present in large companies – where those cultures require always having answers for every single detail at your fingertips. This ever-present concern about the things you can’t control can unintentionally make incredibly talented innovation leaders feel limited, cautious and hesitant in their ability to deliver something extraordinary.

There are many reasons why startups with significantly less resources are able to disrupt the big players... but the clearest difference is the speed of change and the willingness to pivot. Simply put, they are not afraid of change. One great example is GoodOnYa a hydration beverage started by Kris Buchanan, a former US Olympic athlete. Kris has radically changed as she’s learned with a full rebranding to 1051 this year...

Just a short 5 years ago there was never any question within traditional retail that product placement provided important context for the consumer on their path to purchase. But with the entire model of brick and mortar retail being turned on its head, the traditional way of thinking about product launches & shelf placement is quickly losing its impact.

Learn about Norman Doors, the roots of Design Thinking and how Mission Field puts its own unique Entrepreneurial spin on the process.

Did you ever think that a rep-pop recruitment may be undermining your innovation efforts? Talking to the “average” consumer may work fine for assessing line extensions of well known product categories, but when you have disruptive, behavior-changing concepts – ones that often smash or reinvent product categories - then you are more likely putting disruptive ideas into a testing situation where the cards are automatically stacked against them. Luckily there's a solution...

Those of us in innovation are on the hook for an endless stream of contribution. And we all need a refreshing re-set from time to time. I find that all types of challenges can melt away when I take a step back and think about "ORBIT"-ing the situation:

Collecting retailer insights early on when you are developing a new product opportunity helps teams to build better ideas and pivot in ways that strengthen the overall proposition. The insights born from the retailer's point of view allow innovation teams to create a highly differentiated product offering that consumers love and retailers can recognize as deserving their commitment. 

Avoid the high-risk scenario of many new item launches, where high level investments are used to support new rollouts that have only been previously tested in focus groups or through online methodologies… neither of which can flush out the real-life launch challenges. Increase your success of new item launches by quickly identifying which innovations are worth investing in, and which ones pose risk

The researcher’s job can be a hard one; especially when consumers give out surface-level thinking to complex issues that need solutions. We have learned at Mission Field that there are times when we need to act like an unbiased classic researcher, but there are also times when we need to dig, push and challenge consumers in order to get to the heart of the matter… more like an investigative journalist.

How often do you find your innovation portfolio under duress because you haven’t yet landed that big idea?  Getting rigorous quantitative proof that you have the next $100MM idea is challenged by the complexities of consumer behavior. Simply put – when a consumer makes a decision to buy a product (or choose your new concept), it is unlikely to be based on a singular factor, but rather lots of elements that shape the final choice. But what happens when the desire for innovation validation leads to “positioning” the data?