Monday, May 13, 2019

Practice the “Art of Possible” by Leverage Design Thinking

Being able to become innovative to achieve the “art of possible” is being able to apply design thinking and create new things based on the business or customers’ needs.

The essence of innovation is made of trying the combination of known things to create something novel or figure out the better way to do things. Highly innovative organizations improve their design maturity from design-by-default (design just happens and is dictated by status quo policies, procedures, tools, and old mindsets) to design –by-practice (design becomes the key ingredient of innovation strategy, design-driven innovation has been supported by cohesive business capability which underpins by fine-tuned business processes and high-skilled talent teams at a creative business environment). Highly innovative organizations pursue proactively "the art of possible" by leveraging design thinking and tapping the power of emerging digital information technology.

Practicing “the art of possible” is about involving new ways of bringing together ideas and resources to create something novel and managing a transformative innovation portfolio: The convenience brought by powerful digital technologies provides great opportunities for businesses to think the different ways to do things; it forces digital leaders to be proactive and get really creative on how they architect, design and implement changes to ensure business responsiveness and innovativeness. The art of possible is achieved by leveraging design thinking and systems thinking to develop a good innovation strategy, integrate critical business elements into innovation capabilities and manage a balanced innovation portfolio which includes both incremental innovation and breakthrough innovation. A well-set innovation strategy is aggressive enough to inspire mid or long-term goal-seeking and ensure that the company is strategically positioned for adapting to the dynamic business environment. It also guides the business to develop innovation competency by taking a framework approach and tuning processes and tools systematically. Because transformative innovation is not something every organization can accomplish, and innovation compacity cannot be built overnight. Designing robust systems and tools that enable the organization to shape winning concepts or generating fresh ideas on the consistent base is the prerequisite for sustainable business advantage.

Intrapreneurship is one of the great practices in digital business innovation playbook to achieve the “center of possibility”: Companies that continue with the status quo will not win in this ever competitive digital business dynamic with the increasing pace of changes and exponential growth of information. Practicing intrapreneurship is an important step of breaking down some outdated mindset, methodologies, or processes, and leverage design thinking to re-imagine the better way of doing the work and running a digital business. Innovation often happens at the intersection of people and technology, or business and customers. Intrapreneur leaders often have the right dose of risk appetite to help the business develop a culture of innovation, design a resilient organization, explore emerging business opportunities, substantiate their competitive position and drive changes and business growth. There are many changes in an organization to master design work, the point is how to create a business environment for inspiring design thinking, creativity, flexibility, and risk intelligence.

Customer-centric innovation accomplishes far more than incremental product improvement: The customer is the center of innovation management today and they are the major focus for the innovation process and accomplishment. The more customer-facing the innovation is, the higher the customer satisfaction would be. Thus, customers including prospects should be observed and studies to gain empathy. This involves gaining a deep understanding of the motivational construct of the customer; then, leverage design thinking to become "anticipatory" of what the customer will likely "want next"; provide innovative solutions for meeting customers’ requirement, offer added value and features based on system understanding. Innovation is not only about technological advancement or breakthrough, but also about different propositions or approaches to problems with a new interpretation and fresh perspective. Business innovation practices need to be customer-centric, point out that customer inquiries are not just support related, they actually foster better ways the application can perform and optimize every touch point of customer experience. The level of increased customer satisfaction would be also based on both the industry and wherein the enterprise the innovation is occurring.

The digital world is dynamic, nonlinear, uncertain, and volatile. Design becomes the strategic business driver at higher level organizational maturity. Being able to become innovative to achieve the “art of possible” is being able to apply design thinking and create new things based on the business or customers’ needs. True knowledge is the optimal solution to integrate the art and science of digital innovation and improve organizational maturity from functioning to delight.

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