A guide for intentional innovation and a look at how businesses are using these processes to capitalize on social media

1. Opportunistic Innovation
A guide for intentional innovation and a look at
how businesses are using these processes to
capitalize on social media
Alex Bratton
alex.bratton@lextech.com
@alexbratton
@LextechApps lextech.com
@LextechLabs lextechlabs.com

2. Who Am I?
How did I get here?

3. Who Are You?
Quiz time...

4. What is opportunistic innovation?
Having all the pieces in place to be able to quickly
innovate on new opportunities as they are identified

5. Why Bother?
Innovate or Die !?
One rule - continuous change
Leaving money on the table

6. Innovation Mottos

7. Innovation Mottos
Try almost anything & then execute fast on a positive
response

8. Innovation Mottos
Try almost anything & then execute fast on a positive
response
Err on the side of shoot them aim

9. Innovation Mottos
Try almost anything & then execute fast on a positive
response
Err on the side of shoot them aim
Always looking ahead to what’s next

10. Innovation Mottos
Try almost anything & then execute fast on a positive
response
Err on the side of shoot them aim
Always looking ahead to what’s next
Get it done asap so use existing proven commercial
tech (or techniques) where possible

11. 3 Elements of
Opportunistic Innovation
1
I
Infrastructure
Innovation Infrastructure
2
O
Opportunities
Identifying trends & opportunities
3
E Ruthless Execution
Execution

12. Opportunistic Innovation Process
1 2 3
I O E
Infrastructure Opportunities Execution
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

13. Element 1 1
I
Infrastructure
Innovation Infrastructure
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

14. 1
Basic needs for life
I
Infrastructure

15. 1
Basic needs for life
I
Infrastructure
Air

16. 1
Basic needs for life
I
Infrastructure
Air
Food

17. 1
Basic needs for life
I
Infrastructure
Air
Food
Water

18. 1
Basic needs for life
I
Infrastructure
Air
Food
Water
Shelter

19. Basic needs 1
I
Infrastructure
for innovation

20. Basic needs 1
I
Infrastructure
for innovation
Ability to experiment

21. Basic needs 1
I
Infrastructure
for innovation
Ability to experiment
Means to measure

22. Basic needs 1
I
Infrastructure
for innovation
Ability to experiment
Means to measure
Padded room/accept failure mentality

23. Basic needs 1
I
Infrastructure
for innovation
Ability to experiment
Means to measure
Padded room/accept failure mentality
Workshop with the right tools

24. 1
Culture
I
Infrastructure
Empower to make mistakes
Failure is ok if we learn from it
Not just the geeks

25. Dell on Twitter
• Sales alerts via Twitter earned Dell $1 million in a year
and a half.

26. 1
Culture Suggestions
I
Infrastructure
Maintain open culture
Use social media
All business areas:
how you engage customers
build products
talk to the world about them

27. 1
Definition of Failure
I
Infrastructure

28. 1
Definition of Failure
I
Infrastructure
Condition of not achieving the
desired ends

29. 1
Definition of Failure
I
Infrastructure
Condition of not achieving the
desired ends
Nonperformance of what is
expected

30. 1
Definition of Failure
I
Infrastructure
Condition of not achieving the
desired ends
Nonperformance of what is
expected
Someone or something that is
unsuccessful

31. 1
Definition of Failure
I
Infrastructure
Condition of not achieving the
desired ends
Nonperformance of what is
expected
Someone or something that is
unsuccessful
Halt in normal operation

32. Failure = 1
I
Infrastructure
Incremental Success
Accept that you will have to do rework
Learn from experiments
Share lessons with others

33. 1
Physical Environment
I
Infrastructure
Having the right tools
ready
Space to work
Look at your office/
facility, is it ready for
innovation?

34. 1
My Office
I
Infrastructure

35. 1
Know Your Assets
I
Infrastructure
What is your org good at?
Be aware of organization’s assets
Systems
Knowledge/IP/People
Processes
How to apply them in new ways

36. Blendtec on YouTube
• “Will It Blend” series led to a 700% increase in sales.

37. 1
Ability to Measure
I
Infrastructure
Essential to have tools & processes to measure
Know what metrics are trackable
Evaluate what fits
Collect any data you can

38. 1
Sample Metrics
I
Infrastructure
Productivity
Growth
Revenue
Conversation ratios
Leads
Product upsells
# new customers
System usage

39. Collaboration & 1
I
Infrastructure
Knowledge Management
Value of learning something once in the organization
Collecting, storing and sharing information (including
emails!)
Notebook, Wikis, Evernote
IM, Yammer
Fogbugz, Jira, CRM

40. 1
R&D
I
Infrastructure
R&D = Constant experimentation with measurements
Invest heavily in R&D, especially in tough economic
times

41. 1
R&D Investments
I
Infrastructure
Lextech: 20-25%
Model Metrics: 8-9%
Office Express: 4%

42. 1
Ex: Model Metrics
I
Infrastructure
Services firm
Product as a marketing initiative
The Result -- Stage Time!

43. 1
Dangers to Watch For
I
Infrastructure
Danger of perpetual R&D
Not Invented Here (NIH)

44. 1
Ex: SpaceX... !NIH
I
Infrastructure

45. Element 1 - Recap 1
I
Infrastructure
Innovation Infrastructure
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

46. Element 2
2
O
Opportunities
Identifying Opportunities
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

47. 2
O
The New Ideas Opportunities
A+B+C
Customers
Community
Active research
Internal needs

48. 2
O
Mashups Opportunities
A+B+C=WOW
Cross industry
Combining parts of anything
Systems, companies, processes

49. 2
O
Dunkin’ Donuts Opportunities

50. Ex: Model Metrics
SalesForce + Google Maps
SalesForce + Amazon S3 docs
Pieces of systems & create a value added product

51. 2
O
Customer Feedback Opportunities
Get feedback and buy-in while building
Vaporware is not a bad word
Feedback loops
Even bad news is useful
Must talk to them

52. 2
O
Community Opportunities
Talk to people, lots of people
Social networks
LinkedIn -- linkedin.com/alexbratton
Twitter -- @alexbratton
Facebook
Don’t forget the phone

53. What made
Dell start using
Twitter?
• South by Southwest conference in 2007.

54. 2
O
Active Research Opportunities
Regularly looking for new ideas
Reading a lot
Very useful in feeding A+B+C

55. 2
O
Ex: Office Express Opportunities
Active searching outside industry
Directed Google searching

56. Internal needs drive a
2
O
Opportunities
product or service offering
Innovation out of necessity
If your organization needs a solution, others
may as well
Often from recognizing a problem with a
process

57. 2
O
Ex: OnTrack & Insight Opportunities
Needed a way to streamline the billing process for a
services business
Needed to cut down on labor and cycle time to invoice
Full end to end integration from time tracking to invoice
Saved 5-10 hours per week = $250k over 3 years

58. 2
O
Evaluating Concepts Opportunities
Skillsets of current team
Difficulty to adapt to the new direction (team & org)
Rough $ estimate of immediately addressable opty
Can you dip your toe in?

59. 2
O
Sample Trends Opportunities
The new less savvy online user
Overly advanced web sites

60. Element 2 - Recap
2
O
Opportunities
Identifying Opportunities
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

61. Element 3 3
E
Execution
Ruthless Execution
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

62. Element 3 3
E
Execution
Ruthless Execution
Do it
Measure the results
Repeat
Start as small as possible

63. Ping.fm
•Innovation born out of an internal need

64. 3
E
How? Execution
Design, implement, test and refine
Nothing should ever be stable
What is going right & wrong?
Rapid prototypes

65. Anti Example 3
E
Execution
Doomed Publisher
Made the leap from paper to web
Profitable and successful
Looked at mobility & iPhone and said “Our
existing model works, wrap the iPhone around it”
Lulled to sleep by their past success and missing
the mobile trend shift

66. 3
E
Ex: Lextech Labs Execution
Prototyped iPhone control of surveillance cameras
Posted YouTube video
Industry leaders contacted us

67. 3
E
Ex: Model Metrics Execution
Webinar on eCommerce sites with SalesForce &
Amazon
Tweeted a few times...
60% of their registrations from Twitter
The rest of the story...

68. 3
E
Know when to move on Execution
Don’t get stuck just because there’s an
investment in a concept
Evolve it or kill it

69. 3
E
OnTrack iPhone app Execution
View tasks & record time
Built quickly (~3 weeks)
The result -- kill it

70. Element 3 3
E
Execution
Ruthless Execution
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

71. Summary
1 2 3
I O E
Infrastructure Opportunities Execution
Opportunities Execute Measure
Infrastructure

72. Thank You & Questions
Free e-book on Opportunistic Innovation coming soon,
sign up for a copy at
http://lextech.com/innovation
Alex Bratton
alex.bratton@lextech.com
@alexbratton
@LextechApps lextech.com
@LextechLabs lextechlabs.com