Presentation at IASA focusing on the process of Innovation.

1. A Study of Innovation
Philip Wheat
Singularity Innovations
Phil@SingularityInnovations.com

2. Innovation
• It’s the new wonder word
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Noun - a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation
Verb - the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new
• But can’t we get more targeted than that?

3. The Process
• Capabilities
• Brainstorming
• Targeting
• Rapid Prototyping
• Proofing
• Finalization
• Documentation
• Presentation

4. Capabilities
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These are your Knowns and Known
Unknowns
Building Capabilities is often the most
challenging part of the process.
Diverse Capabilities are key to a successful
effort
Be Careful not to center on a single
capability
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Example:
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EDDIE Robotics Research Platform
Kinect Game Sensor
Windows 8 Alpha SDK
Phidgets Hardware Interface System

5. Brainstorming
• “I need a…”
• “I want a…”
• “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”
• “I read about a…”
• “I saw a movie about…”
• Key parts of Brainstorming are
understanding the scope and
objectives.
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Product
Press
Process
Inspritation

6. Targeting
• This is where the mapping happens
• How do you use Capability X/Y/Z to get to Brainstorm A/B/C?
• Quickly throw out the impractical or the improbable.
• Decide on at least the general feature set
• Don’t get too detailed yet
• Build your list of questions

7. Rapid Prototyping
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THIS is where you want to spend your time
Rapid means many things – ideally you want to have a cycle time of about 24
hours.
Hardware is actually easier to break down into rapid chunks than software
Let your answers guide your path – a “It won’t work” result is the second best
answer you’ll get. “Not sure” is the worst.
When working with hardware – budget for failure (3x requirements are
conservative.)

8. Finalization
• At some point you’ll have to decide what will make the first cut
• Remember that it should be just the first cut – waiting for production quality
on everything leads to paralysis.
• Finalization will often take as much time as prototyping did.
• Things that don’t make this cut go back into the idea pile for Rev Next.
• Never let there be a final Rev (or at least always act as if there is a Rev Next.)

9. Documentation
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Nothing’s done until the paperwork is in.
Seriously – you’ll need to push out the information to others. If you can’t, you’re
stuck with it.
Documentation is also your QC – this is where you find all those obvious problems
before you go out in public.
Build it as a hand-off packet – and a budget justification for that Rev Next.
Bring the lawyers in at this point – this will likely be when the patents and
trademarks happen.

10. Presentation
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Part of the Innovation process is the presentation - what kind will depend on the
goals you started with
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Press – Pretty clear
Process – Internal leads
Inspiration – Internal and external
Product – Production people first, and then release
This is also why communications skills are an important part of an innovation team
This is the payoff – where teams get to gather mindshare for their innovations

11. So how do YOU do it?
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Build the right team
Give them the support and budget to explore
Give them cover from Bureaucracy
Give them a time limit
Give them a target
Give them the authority to get it done
Get out of the way

12. Questions?

13. A Study of Innovation
Philip Wheat
Singularity Innovations
Phil@SingularityInnovations.com