How to Do the Most Difficult Thing in Innovation - Start
Start heading west.
No address. No known destination. No city. Not even a state. Just go west.
If you’re driving somewhere, getting those directions leaves you with a multitude of questions, but when you’re beginning an innovation project, that’s often the amount of information you have.
That’s because the most difficult part of any innovation project is beginning, and beginning can feel directionless.
Most organizations have no shortage of ideas, but knowing how to mobilize a team to begin executing against an unknown outcome feels uncomfortable.
And it should feel that way. Every assignment you had in school had expectations, definitions of success, and a clear deadline. You knew where you were going and when you had to be there.
Early in your career, the projects that landed on your desk probably felt similar. Sure, there were more unknowns now, but you had a destination. A timeline. A map you could reference to plot your path to get there.
But Innovation is different. You need to start moving before you know very much at all, or you’ll lose your first mover advantage.
Speed is usually the most important factor when building new products. Here’s how you get your team aligned and ready to start.
1. Feel the Ground
I want you to close your eyes, and imagine you’re standing tall in the middle of the country. For the sake of this exercise, let’s say it’s the United States.
You probably don’t know where you are, but for what you can see around you. If I asked you to walk home, I suspect you wouldn’t have the faintest idea what roads you would take to make it there.
But what if I gave you a compass and asked you to give me a few points? What states are to the west of you? How about the East? If I asked you to start walking west, could you do that? I’m certain you’d be able to.
Now replace those physical places with the idea you have and the strategic directions you could take it. Not the end product, just the direction.
Close your eyes. Stand tall. Look around.
Should your team head to the right? To the left?
It may feel strange, but this is one of the activities my team uses a lot. So much that you’ll sometimes hear us ask “am I going east or west” as a method to reaffirm our direction.
Start with your direction, but don’t worry about where you’re ending up…yet.
2. Begin to Move
Move in the direction you’ve chosen.
Think back to the example of a physical place. Could you start moving toward California if I gave you a compass? You’d probably figure you ned to head west, potentially southwest, though California is big and I haven’t shared a final destination yet.
Now use that approach for your build. Begin moving toward the direction you want to go.
From a product development standpoint, this will look like a lot of research and enablers to help you begin to create your product requirements. At this point, you should still be using a macro lens. You’re not going to know the final version of the product, but you should start to understand how your customers may interact with it, what they would want from it, and who it is for.
If you’re in agile, these answers will become your features.
3. Refine Your Directions
As you continue to move, your team will hit points where where they have to make key decisions.
A road ends and you need to decide if you go northwest or southwest. You breakdown and need to determine if it’s right to keep moving on or if you should end your journey. Maybe it’s time to go back the other way?
These refinements are what will transition your team from the uncomfortable phase to the comfortable. Your backlog will get flushed out and you’ll have stories that lead to real milestones.
Your product is moving forward.
4. Reach Your Destination
If you’ve been part of an innovation team, you’ve undoubtedly ben on a journey where no one puts the destination into the GPS. Don’t let that happen to you.
Your team has been moving fast, and it’s time to place a pin in the map. This is not your final product, rather, your destination on the journey of innovating an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). In agile, it’s most likely you’re first release.
Be sure your team knows where the destination is. You’ll start to resemble a product team running a scaled or stable product at this point, with a clear release in sight and a backlog for future features and releases if you find success.
Of course, this destination isn’t the end. But it is time to reflect on how you made it home safely from that moment you were standing in the middle of nowhere, a compass in hand, and a direction to choose.
