Book Review and Reflection: The Innovator’s Method
Introduction
The Innovator’s Method illustrates beautiful concepts that can be applied to business, leadership, and life as a whole. The innovator is one who never stops learning and never stops growing. The innovator has changed the way the world of business works. Nathan Furr and Jeff Dyer have written a fantastic book on the Innovator’s Method that I learned a lot from. I will touch on three key principles that apply to the wonderful world of Entrepreneurship beautifully. Principle 1: Be a 1,000 person start-up, principle 2: Discover the job to be done, and principle 3: Prototyping and Pivoting are key to any success. As I have talked to and listened to entrepreneurs I have seen the manifestation of these principles in the successful and innovative. Let’s dive deeper into the wisdom of The Innovator’s Method.
Principle 1: Be a 1,000 person start-up
Intuit is a brand that in 2020, is famous for its groundbreaking products and creative ideas. They were not always this way. Intuit had some major success at the beginning of its founding but in 2008 Intuits growth was in a major downfall. The company was heading towards failure: its products were going “out of style”. The team at Intuit needed a solution, and luckily they stumbled upon the concept of the Innovator’s Method.
What is the Innovator’s Method? It is a four-step process (Insight -> Problem -> Solution -> Business Model) that requires trial and error and leads to creation. This is a creation not of simple new ideas but of tested, prototyped products that are ready to be sold and mass-produced. Intuit decided to give the Innovators method a shot and they became a “1,000 person” startup. It changed their business forever.
When we are in a startup mindset we are constantly looking for ways to improve our product, we look for growth and new clients, we look for ways to innovate. Often companies will fall into a trap after initial success. The trap becomes that they stop innovate and focus all of their efforts on cutting costs and scaling at the best price. Though this may work for a small-time, it will fade. Don’t believe it? Ask Blockbuster Films, Blackberry Phones, or IBM Computers. They stopped innovating their flagship products and “fell off the wagon”.
Intuit became a reborn startup and it paid off. Intuit is not the creator of top of the line financial products for millions of people. They are constantly improving and moving towards a better future. They listen to their consumers and create in a way that matches the needs of the people. They take time to discover the job that needs to be done. This is the principle I will discuss next.
Principle 2: Discover the job to be done.
Discovery is a process that takes time. Yet it is key to entrepreneurship. When starting any company it is so important to take the time to discover your consumer’s needs. This is done through processes of uncovering: interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, testing, prototyping, etc.
We all come to a new business having a great idea. This is not a bad thing of course but it can be bad if we are not willing to listen to our consumers and adjust and pivot (I will talk more about this later on). There needs to be a process of discovery even if we have our own idea. We may be pleasantly surprised at what we find if we are willing to see.
At the start-up, I am currently working with, DNALI Digital Marketing. We have made effort to truly capitalize on this principle in its fullness. We have made the beginning stages of our growth-focused around a key question, “What does the business owner wish that Digital Marketing Agency did better at?”. We want to understand where the real problem lies in the confusing, and complicated world of digital marketing and not just offer another agency to “get by” with the minimum amount of work.
There is always a “job to be done at any company and any business. We need to take the time to discover what that job is and then solve the problem. This is innovation. We don’t solve the problem without prototyping and pivoting. This brings us to principle three.
Principle 3: Prototyping and Pivoting are key to any success
The “secret sauce” that drives startups to succeed — Prototyping and Pivoting. These two “P’s” are a part of the innovator’s method. They come to us as friends in solving problems and creating new ideas.
Prototyping is the process by which we test the ideas we have come up with to solve our found problem. There are many ways to prototype, whether it is building a beta app, running a small mock event, or cold calling in different ways using different methods: prototyping works for any business. As we prototype we will often, if not always, find problems within our solutions. We are human and we make mistakes. This is all part of the process and this is why we have the pivot.
Pivoting is the movement we make to “course correct” our ideas and products. When driving on our way to a new destination and we learn that we have taken a wrong turn we reroute and take a different route. It is the same for us on the road of business. We will need to reroute many times to succeed in most cases.
Let me present an example of this by asking a question — I know you know of the Apple iPhone, but have you heard of the Apple Newton? The Newton, introduced in 1993, was Apple’s first attempt at creating the smartphone. It was a PDA (a personal digital assistant that is, not a public display of affection) and it did anything but take the world by storm. It had many features unheard of at the time however, Apple could not convince the public to turn from their paper planners and brick phones to the Newton.
In 1998, Steve Jobs shut down the development of any further Newton OS. Counting his losses and moving on to a new development of a product that would change the world, the iPhone. No one knows much about the Newton, however, as you study it you realize that Apple was prototyping and testing and then pivoting. That pivoting lead to 2007 where the first smartphone was presented on the market. That day changed the world as we know it. All thanks to innovation at its finest.
Conclusion
Nathan Furr and Jeff Dyer have gathered principles and wisdom from years of studying and analyzing the mind of the innovator. They created the book The Innovator’s Method as the icing on the cake of this research. There is much to learn from reading this book and I have touched on but three principles: to be a 1,000 person start-up, to take the time to discover the job to be done, and finally to use the power of prototyping and pivoting. The Innovator’s Method is not a mindset that only a few have had. It is a way of thinking and being that we can all learn. I have seen it in the most successful of people and I hope to continue to learn of it and develop the mindset within myself.
— Bridger