Stacy Leidwinger moderated this week’s #innochat on the topic of “Mapping innovation with the customer experience.” One question stood out for me, “4.How do you avoid innovating for a single customer & drive innovation for a market?”
This question gets at the heart of good R&D strategy. If your company’s business strategy is to achieve category leadership in a product category then you have to organize R&D so that the process of innovation is not just a series of one-off’s but a road map of continuous innovation.
Instead of listening to customers to discover what ideas you should develop, you listen to customers to see what innovations you need to develop that match with your road map.
You therefore have to think carefully about your road map strategy, maybe consider innovation consulting. Look around you at competitors, think about how leadership in one attribute will enable you to maintain or grow your product’s market share. Consumer insights then can be both about designing your road map strategy, and knowing what products will enable you to maintain leadership.
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