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What does it take to create a successful new product? How do you really innovate in a crowded marketplace full of jaded customers?
Something really New helps you look at three key approaches to product innovation -- appearance, novelty, and utility -- and shows you that the first two are short-lived. Competitors can mimic any appearance innovation and, as for novelty, how many people bought two Pet Rocks?
But if your product idea is meant to meet a practical need, you’re in luck. Something Really New helps you get right to the heart of utilitarian innovation -- efficiency, or the saving of effort, time, money, or all three. This book shows you how to analyze a task -- any task -- and reduce and simplify the steps involved in accomplishing that task. It’s a time-tester innovation process that has brought us everything from the pop-up toaster to E-Z Pass.
The first thing you’ve got to do is ask, What are products in this line used for? “Well, duh,” you say. “Of course I know what they’re used for.” But if your business is like most, you may be equating what your products are used for with what they do. Think of your kitchen faucet. It brings water to your kitchen sink. That’s what it does. But it’s not what you use it for. You use it to wash dishes, to fill pots for cooking, to get a drink, to wash your hands, things like that.
Without focusing on what a product is used for, you’re missing the real reason people buy things. So whether you’re brainstorming in product development meetings or using market research and focus groups to inspire new ideas, it’s up to you to identify and ask the right questions. Something Really New will help you get to the root of what you really need to ask -- and dig deeper to get the truly useful answers.
At the end of the day, real innovation is about identifying not just what the product is used for but also what can be done -- what steps removed -- to make a task easier. And finally, what you can do to turn a product into a holy grail of innovation -- one that not only addresses an immediate need but also makes connections to the user’s other needs.
Engagingly and humorously written and filled with clear examples and constructive approaches, Something Really New could just as easily be called “Something Really Useful.” In itself, the book is an innovation that will help ease the previously daunting task of creating products that spark and sustain bottom-line growth.
Denis J. Hauptly is Vice President, Technology Strategy for Thomson Global Resources in Zug, Switzerland. He has previously served as Vice President, New Product Development, for Westlaw and has held product innovation positions with Westlaw and its parent company, The Thomson Corporation, for more than twelve years. Visit his website at: www. somethingreallynew.com.
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