Qualifying Innovation

As much as I hate this topic, it still is worth exploring. When huge majority of the world is doers and the percentage of true innovators is in single digit percentages , we shouldn't be qualifying innovation, right? While that argument can't be beaten, one still needs this topic to figure out what kind of behaviours to inculcate/promote. So here it goes.

In many places, what is innovation is determined by what is common. For teams/organisations which are highly creative/innovative, the bar is high and many things come across as 'minor improvements'. In other places, slightest change in 'the usual' might get celebrated.

1. With this context, it might be better to use an 'outside in' approach to qualify innovation. What does market/industry consider as 'the usual'? What is the maturity of customer organisations (B2B) /customers (B2C) in process/technology? This would be a good threshold to filter out ideas
2. Is the innovation 'improving' an existing practice or 're-imagining' ?
3. Is the idea 'complex'? This is a more pragmatic filter since most world impacting innovations are much 'simpler' . Also to keep in mind is the fact that Complex is Costly.
4. Where does the anchor lie for the idea? Does it improve life for the customer? Is customer the anchor or something else?
5. Source of idea: If it has come from the marketplace ( customer or competition), the idea is probably dated and tried out already with known results. While iPod is not the first portable music player and neither Mac the first personal computer, fundamental original ideas are more powerful than trying to do things better than whats already out there.
6. Passion behind the idea: Contrary to what many think of this as a negative, its the passion that sees things through in execution and not necessarily the idea itself. So if you want the idea executed and deliver results in real world, look for this quality.
7. Last but not the least: There is no formula for innovation as to what works. Also at the end of the day the spirit of Day 1 ( in Amazon parlance) and curiosity that counts and that is a culture worth nurturing irrespective of the idea.