By: jokko korhonen

jokko korhonen — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:32:05 +0000

I’d like to expand upon your three points on innovation by considering how they map three important principles we’ve identified at Nokia for designing services.
1. Provide consumers membership opportunities
2. Provide consumers tools for describing needs on the fly
3. Provide consumers tools to create solutions
I think these principles map well to your points. This is how:
1. Start-up: binge on your own dogfood (focus on your core competence?) > Proposition: provide consumers “membership” opportunities in what you stand for.
This is about making it crystal clear what it is your enterprise stands for. It is about getting consumers to buy into your vision and the benefits you intend to provide them. This is different from getting consumers to buy into a set of features or even an application. The idea of membership links well with the idea of a brand and consumers desiring to associate themselves with brand values.
2. Start-up: live by usage stats > Proposition: let consumers generate and describe their needs on the fly
The key idea is real-time. Its about segmenting customers according to what they do with your service and not some predetermined business dimensions from strategy or extensive market research. Easier said than done. It requires figuring out what are the parameters of your customer model and then ensuring the right type of data is collected. Very dependent on a critical mass of customers.
3. Start-up: iterate like mad > Proposition: provide consumers or groups the means to create solutions for their own needs.
This is consistent with the previous proposition in that is means being open to new customer desires and situations. It requires attentiveness, agility and flexibility. This proposition would not work if it were not for the first proposition about “membership”.
Make sense? I hope I’ve understood your points correctly.

By: Igor Schwarzmann

Igor Schwarzmann — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:40:56 +0000

I heared, that Dopplr is having this conference-release-cycle and seems, like it worked pretty good for them. Everytime that I visit a big conference, there is always somebody talking about innovation.
And Dopplr is a nice example for the exactly right release of features. They started with a very basic set of features, but made them very good and very sticky.
Since I’m not an entrepreneur, I didn’t experience what it takes to turn around a company, but it seems only in the human nature, that human build construct don’t change by mere evolution. There is always a big need for a major catalytic event to invoke permanent and evolving change. Startups don’t differentiate themselves. At least not in this case.

Comments on: Three simple points on innovation

By: jokko korhonen

By: Igor Schwarzmann