CONCLUSION

THE INNOVATOR’S PLEDGE

If you have followed the 28-day innovation program, or embraced the philosophies that lie behind them, you have begun to stretch the bonds of the status quo. You are on your way to fully breaking them and becoming a full-fledged innovator. Table C-1 serves as a simple reminder of the key lessons from each stage of the program.

To reinforce those lessons, consider taking the Innovator’s Pledge, which borrows from the Declaration of Independence and the pledge that I and other safety patrols had to recite every day at Luxmanor Elementary School (where my political career ended after my crushing loss in the third-grade vice president election).1

The pledge begins with a statement:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all have the ability to innovate, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Capabilities, that among these are Curiosity, Creativity, and the pursuit of Growth.

I really do believe this statement. Everyone has the ability to be a successful innovator.

Next come seven simple ways to reinforce the lessons that have run through this book:

I promise to do my best to:

  • Triple the time I spend with the customers.
  • Routinely ask “Why?” “Why not?” and “What if?”
  • Strive to run an experiment a day.
  • Always look for ways to learn more without spending money.
  • Get to the intersections.
  • Call up the most iconoclastic person I know and ask to be introduced to the most iconoclastic person he or she knows.
  • Teach a friend three key innovation lessons.

Following the Innovator’s Pledge will reinforce what you practiced during my twenty-eight-day program. Best of luck to you in your innovation efforts!

TABLE C-1

The Little Black Book’s 28 Day Innovation Program

Day Daily tip Central question One-sentence answer
1 Start Before You Need To How do I know it is time to innovate? Watch for early warning signs, because the urgency of innovation and the ability to innovate are inversely related.
2 Remember, the Consumer Is Boss How do I spot opportunities for innovation? Take a consumer-is-boss perspective.
3 Get the Job Done What indicates an opportunity for innovation? Look for an important, unsatisfied job to be done, or a problem the customer can’t adequately address today.
4 Compete Against Nonconsumption Which customers should I target? Look for “nonconsumers” that face a barrier inhibiting their ability to get a job done.
5 Find Compensating Behaviors How can I find nonobvious opportunities? Consider targeting the compensating behavior that an individual follows to cover the inadequacy of existing solutions.
6 Get as Close to Context as Possible How should I investigate potential opportunities? Start with deep observational or ethnographic research; avoid focus groups like the plague.
7 Don’t Innovate Blind How can I confirm that the opportunity I have spotted is real? Invest the time to understand the market you hope to target—always ask why smart people haven’t seized an opportunity that looks obvious to you.
8 Go to the Intersections How can I get inspiration for an idea? Go to the intersections, and borrow liberally from other contexts.
9 Seek Ideas from Everywhere Where should I look for inspiration? Rapidly explore as many avenues as possible when searching for new ideas.
10 Remember: Quality Is Relative Is my idea high quality? Quality is a relative term that can only be determined by understanding what matters to the target customer.
11 Avoid Overshooting Is there such a thing as too good? It is possible to overshoot your target market by introducing features that the customer will take, but not value enough to pay for.
12 Do It Differently What is a disruptive innovation? Disruptive innovations create new markets and transform existing ones through simplicity, convenience, affordability, or accessibility.
13 Embrace Business Model Innovation What is a business model, and how do I innovate it? A business model describes how a company creates, captures, and delivers value; systematically considering a wide range of business model options can help enable business model innovation.
14 Bring It Together How can I translate my work into a concrete blueprint? “Don’t just do something—stand there”; step back and summarize your work in a comprehensive plan.
15 Let Patterns Guide and Actions Decide How can I separate good ideas from bad ideas? Use patterns to get a directional sense as to whether an idea is any good, and then run experiments to confirm that directional sense.
16 Calculate Your Idea’s Four P’s What is a quick way to estimate my idea’s financial potential? Multiply population, penetration, price, and purchase frequency to gain quick insight into an idea’s potential.
17 Reverse-Engineer Success How can I identify an idea’s most critical assumptions? Determine what success looks like, and then identify the two most critical things that would have to happen for success to be obtainable.
18 Test Critical Assumptions How can I learn more about my idea? Tests are the best ways to learn about existing critical assumptions and to identify new ones.
19 Bring Ideas to Life How can I get people behind my idea? Find creative ways to bring ideas to life in order to build buy-in and motivate action.
20 Embrace Everyday Experimentation How can I get good at experimenting? Be on constant lookout for ways to run everyday experiments.
21 Savor Surprises How can I learn the right things from my experiments? Experience the raw data, and focus on the findings you did not expect.
22 Embrace Selective Scarcity How much should I invest in innovation? Embrace selective scarcity with tight timelines, single decision makers, and constrained strategic choices.
23 Amplify Your Resources Where can I find resources for innovation? Leverage external resources, and redirect currently committed resources.
24 Break the Sucking Sound of the Core How can I avoid the sucking sound of the core? Active leadership, new voices, safe spaces, and smart borrowing can help protect innovators from the sucking sound of the core.
25 Manage the Interfaces How do I manage interfaces between a new business and the core business? Use a range of techniques to make sure you don’t accidentally remember what you are trying to forget.
26 Reward Behaviors, Not Outcomes How can I motivate and reward innovation? Shift from basing rewards on innovation outcomes to rewarding the right behaviors, even if the outcome is unsuccessful.
27 Get Quick Wins How can I build momentum? Get quick wins to ensure that efforts don’t get killed when the ticking clock strikes midnight.
28 Practice Makes Perfect How can I become systematically better at innovation? Put yourself in circumstances where you have to practice core innovation skills.
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