Innovating for unmet needs

INNOVATION IS hard.

If the track record is poor on the hit-rate for new products and services in your organisation, then you may need to delve into the hidden drivers of behaviours in your target market.

Most innovation in Jamaica follows the same process.

First, someone high enough in the company has a bright idea – a flash of insight. Their intuition tells them that there’s revenue to be made from customers who will willingly pay for a new offering.

Then, the idea is shared, but more often than not, a directive is issued. An employee in a lower position is given the job of evaluating the concept.

They return with misgivings, but it soon becomes clear that the high-level originator won’t be easily swayed. A final decision is made to proceed.

However, when the product fails in the market, everyone is mystified, except those employees closest to the prospects. They have their pulse on customer behaviour and can see the shortcomings of the idea clearly. However, they lack clout to make a difference.

Companies try to compensate for this power imbalance by surveying workers for ideas, but the truth is that lower-level staff often draw a blank when polled for new product suggestions. They just don’t have the skills to speak to the executive suite.

Fortunately, there’s a better way. At the heart of Tony Ulwick’s theory in his book Jobs to be Done is the idea that everyone is going about their daily routine trying to get certain tasks executed. Here is a method that links this notion to innovation.

First, ask for nnmet needs. An unmet need is expressed as a threepart statement: ‘When I feel/need a-b-c, I want to l-m-n, so that x-y-z’. In other words, it’s an expression of a psychological state, lying deep within the customer’s experience, which then leads to action.

While this desire may be weak at the start, if it continues to be unmet, it grows until an actionable decision is made.

Consider that customers of your company are a walking bundle of unmet needs. Normally, your marketing department would simply assign them to a well-defined segment. Set that approach aside, and, instead, start looking for unmet, emotional drivers.

The challenge is that customers cannot be surveyed directly about their deeper, driving feelings. Why? People give unreliable answers in questionnaires, often telling the surveyor the answers they believe the person wants to hear.

Alternatively, it’s far better to have a conversation with customers about their actions then gently probe them for the reasons behind them. Their explanations may be unclear, but their past behaviour offers important clues. Keep asking until a pattern of actions and underlying emotions emerges. Second, look for substitutes. Strong, unmet needs cause people to take concrete steps even if it only leads them to partial, temporary substitutes.

By definition, the fact that the need persists means that the substitute is doing a poor job. For example, someone who has a feeling for some quick, new ideas to use in their organisation may go searching on television, the local bookstore, or Facebook. While these substitutes are all readily available and inexpensive, they are time-consuming and foreign, so the need never gets fulfilled.

Therefore, your new product or service should be so well-crafted that it displaces the substitutes currently in use. They are, in fact, your real enemies.