Innovatia

Testing is an underused phase of the inno- vation process that’s often skipped or un- der-funded, at the expense of an outstanding outcome. The irony is that most organisa- tions are so risk-averse that they’d rather ex- ecute an average, safe idea than test a bril- liant, bold one. But, before you jump to send out another customer survey, the authors state in no un- certain terms that “surveys are useless”. They claim that you need to judge people by their actions, not their words or sentiments. There- fore, effective tests should involve some kind of transaction; clicks, sign ups, purchases, or commitments. Throughout the book, Jeremy and Perry share examples from the biggest, most crea- tive organisations alongside stories from stu- dents who have gone through the dSchool program. There’s examples from startups alongside stories from corporates who have needed to rethink their own appetite for learning by getting used to thinking small- er and using pilots and prototypes to evolve their organisations. BARK, the dog toy and treat subscription box company, tested their early product by showing prototype boxes to their dog-owning friends. Rather than just getting their friends’ feedback on the boxes, the BARK owners re- ally tested how much their friends liked the box by getting them to buy one on the spot. This level of commitment is the true proof of the quality of an idea, and generated their first customers. Compare this to the story of a shopping mall, where the execs had the idea to build a beer garden on their top floor to attract

and comparatively inexpensive test would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars of their big build project, not to mention the time and energy wasted on a dud idea that could have been spent properly testing a suite of other ideas. This is just one or many examples shared in the book of why, and how, businesses need to exercise the discipline of rigorous test- ing. Sir James Dyson tested one variation a day for four years to refine his bagless vacu- um cleaner; tweaking, measuring, and docu- menting throughout. The authors emphasise that sometimes it’s the quality of your test that’s the problem, not the product or service you’re trying to test. Ideaflow is not the full picture of the inno- vation process, but it’s not designed to be. It’s

one element that’s easy to isolate, improve on, and achieve some meaningful impact from doing so. At times, the book feels like it falls into the category of ‘books that should have been a series of punchy blog posts’. However, it is easy to read, the examples are up-to-date and relevant, and the authors have done a good job of including case studies that resonate with the contexts and realities of a variety of readers. If you’re frustrated with your organisation’s approach to innovation, feel like your team is stuck in a void of ideas, or you’re feeling de- flated after a few idea flops, you will almost certainly walk away from this book with new techniques and interesting conversations to experiment with.

office workers and revive their struggling space. Armed with their good idea, manage- ment surveyed mall customers to ask if they would check out a prospective beer garden. An overwhelming majority of customers said they would. Surely this could only be a re- sounding success? Buoyed by this clear vote of confidence, the mall invested hundreds of thousands build- ing the beer garden. It was well stocked with craft beers, a luxury fit-out, and gourmet food. One month after opening, the beer gar- den was attracting fewer than a dozen cus- tomers a night. Why hadn’t the shopping mall spent just a few thousand dollars on a temporary pop up bar, to test people’s commitment? A simple, “Why hadn’t the shopping mall spent just a few thousand dollars on a temporary pop up bar, to test people’s commitment? A simple, and comparatively inexpensive test would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars of their big build project, not to mention the time and energy wasted on a dud idea that could have been spent properly testing a suite of other ideas.”

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INNOVATIA