Innovation by SIT

As part of what may be called our daily “routine” we find ourselves leading innovation processes with various companies all over the world - from Cincinnati to Melbourne, from Tokyo to Stockholm, and from La Pas to Moscow.
These innovation processes are usually very intense, and leave little time for anything other than work. But those of us who like photography take advantage of those few free moments for exercising our hobby. In our SITE SEEING posts we want to share with you some of the photographs we took, and some of the stories behind them.

The photos in this album have been taken in Leeds, UK during a weeklong New Product Development process with Unilever. The high profile of the brand, coupled with other unique aspects of the process, made it a very interesting project. We were lucky to work with a group of talented and friendly people, that were kind enough to show us around Leeds despite the intensity of the project.

As we reached the final phases of the project we realized that although the participants were very passionate about some of the ideas, there was no agreement around which ideas we should be passionate about… So, before the formal rating of the ideas, we decided to use a tool called “Articulating the WOW”.

“Articulating the WOW” tries to bridge our intuitive, gut-feeling thinking and our logical, analytical thinking. When using AT-WOW participants are first asked to choose an idea they feel is a WOW idea (not simply one that they like). Then they are asked to explain what it is about that idea that creates the WOW. This may seem simple enough, but the trick is to “force” participants to avoid clichés and generalizations (e.g. it has market potential, it is innovative, it is interesting …). Rather, the participants are instructed to address specific aspects of the idea, and its relevance to the company, the customers and the market.

Through asking a series of “Why” and “How” questions – much like the questions of a child – we help participants consider what specific characteristics of the idea make it interesting or promising.  Once participants manage to transcend the wall of generic explanations they get to interesting answers and valuable insights. One such insight relates to the true nature of the criteria behind the group’s choices…

It is presumptuous of any photographer to assume that his or her pictures will inspire a WOW with their audience. However, if any of the pictures in the album do inspire such a reaction – you could try to use the AT-Wow tool. See if you can analyze what specifically  it is about that particular picture that you like so much. You might be surprised at how difficult the translation of our gut-feeling choices into concrete and coherent arguments really is.

As always - your comments and questions are very welcome…

Amit Mayer is a Senior SIT Facilitator, and a creative & didactic manager at SIT Facilitator, and a creative & didactic manager at Medidactic Ltd.

Amit and the rest of us at SIT would be happy to talk to you about innovation.

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