A more powerful innovation, which seeks to discover not how things
work but why we need things.
The standard text on innovation advises would-be innovators to conduct
creative brainstorming sessions and seek input from outsiders--users or
communities. This kind of innovating can be effective at improving
products but not at capturing bigger opportunities in the marketplace.
In this book Roberto Verganti offers a new approach--one that does not
set out to solve existing problems but to find breakthrough meaningful
experiences. There is no brainstorming--which produces too many ideas,
unfiltered--but a vision, subject to criticism. It does not come from
outsiders but from one person's unique interpretation.
The alternate path to innovation mapped by Verganti aims to discover not
how things work but why we need things. It gives customers something
more meaningful--something they can love. Verganti describes the work of
companies, including Nest Labs, Apple, Yankee Candle, and Philips
Healthcare, that have created successful businesses by doing just this.
Nest Labs, for example, didn't create a more advanced programmable
thermostat, because people don't love to program their home appliances.
Nest's thermostat learns the habits of the household and bases its
temperature settings accordingly.
Verganti discusses principles and practices, methods and implementation.
The process begins with a vision and proceeds through developmental
criticism, first from a sparring partner and then from a circle of
radical thinkers, then from external experts and interpreters, and only
then from users.
Innovation driven by meaning is the way to create value in our current
world, where ideas are abundant but novel visions are rare. If something
is meaningful for both the people who create it and the people who
consume it, business value follows.
