Creating Innovative Products and Services

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Innovation is an important managerial instrument – but many of us struggle with how to approach it. Creating Innovative Products and Services has been written for directors, managers, advisors and innovation specialists in organisations who are responsible for, or involved in, product innovation or service design, brand development, new business development or organizational development. It contains practical guidance through every stage.

Creating Innovative Products and Services Review

Creating Innovative Products and Services is a book by Gijs van Wulfen, that is newly translated into English (2011). Van Wulfen worked as a marketer for several well known European brands and as a management consultant for Ernst & Young and Boer & Croon. Those experiences taught him a valuable lesson: human dynamics are a vital part of the ideation process. That is, there are no substitutes for management buy in, involvement of stakeholders, and the importance of a facilitator. This last point is expected and self-serving for an innovation consultant to make. However, as someone who has spent more than 25 years developing new technology, I am convinced that what van Wulfen says about facilitation is spot on. If your organization struggles with creating leap-frog technology or making more than incremental improvements to existing product lines, chances are it is not the mere method -- i.e., Stage Gate(TM) etc. -- that is at fault. Nonetheless, Creating Innovative Products and Services does give a detailed overview of how to *unfuzzy* innovation's fuzzy front end through what van Wulfen calls the FORTH innovation method.

FORTH is an acronym standing for Full steam ahead, Observe and learn, Raise ideas, Test ideas, and Homecoming. The analogy is to a voyage of discovery, full of hazards to avoid and landmarks to sight. The method starts with a kickoff workshop comprising one-and-one-half days (1.5d), proceeds through discovery and insight training (1d), connecting with customers (6d), four observe and learn workshops (2d), a brainstorming session (2d), qualitative market research (1d), an improvement workshop (1d), development of various abbreviated (mini) new business cases (termed MNBCs, 8.5d), an MNBC progress meeting (0.5d), presentation of the vetted MNBCs to the FORTH committee (1d), and a final presentation to management (0.5d). This totals 25 days. The book is full of valuable check lists, brainstorming techniques (30 of them), step-by-step instructions, and a variety of helpful sidebars and case studies. An appendix includes other techniques such as the 40 TRIZ principles (the framework developed by famed Soviet Genrich Altshuller) and the Six Thinking Hats (developed by creativity expert Edward de Bono), as well as a bibliography, glossary, and index.

The book is roughly 260 pages and unlike many others in the space, provides step-by-step details and references; it is very detailed and very good. But perhaps a word of caution is in order. As a musician, I could describe a formula for writing the blues: they typically have a 1-4-5 chord progression and three verses with an instrumental between the second and third verse. Each verse comprises four lines with the lyrics in the first and second lines repeated. If you are a musician, then what I have said makes sense. And if not, you see my point -- just knowing the mechanics of a creative endeavor is not enough to generate a creative product. There is something about the phrase creative formula that makes an oxymoron, and yet there is something about structure that enhances creativity. Creating Innovative Products and Services provides valuable structure; and for an organization with talent and management support, that could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship."

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