The word innovation gets thrown around a lot.
A company changes its logo and calls it innovation.
Someone adds AI to an old process and suddenly it’s innovation.
A team sits in a room for three hours, fills a wall with sticky notes, and walks away feeling very innovative.
But did anything actually change?
That’s the question I think we need to ask more often.
To me, real world innovation isn’t about how creative an idea sounds. It’s about whether the idea solves a real problem and creates some kind of value.
Something has to happen.
A customer gets a better experience.
A company saves money.
An employee saves time.
A new market opens up.
A product becomes easier to use.
A business finds a new source of revenue.
A frustrating problem disappears.
That’s when innovation moves out of the brainstorming room and into the real world.
Real World Innovation Has a Job to Do
I love creative ideas.
I make my living talking about creativity and teaching people how to generate more of them.
But an idea and an innovation aren’t necessarily the same thing.
You can have a wonderfully creative idea that serves no useful purpose whatsoever.
That’s fine if you’re having fun.
Business innovation has a job to do.
It needs to improve something.
That improvement doesn’t have to be gigantic.
We tend to think innovation has to be the next smartphone, airplane, or miracle drug.
It doesn’t.
Sometimes the smartest innovation is surprisingly small.
Maybe you remove three unnecessary steps from a process.
Maybe you change the way customers schedule appointments.
Maybe you find another use for something your company already owns.
Maybe you package an existing service differently.
Maybe you notice one annoying thing your customers have accepted for years and finally fix it.
Small innovations can create very big results.
Test #1: Does It Solve a Real Problem?
This is probably my favorite test.
What problem does the idea solve?
If nobody can answer that question, I’d be suspicious.
Inventors naturally look for problems because problems give you something concrete to work with.
Businesses can do the same thing.
Listen for sentences like:
“This takes forever.”
“I hate doing this.”
“Why do we still do it this way?”
“I wish there was an easier way.”
“Customers keep complaining about this.”
Those statements are practically invitations to innovate.
You don’t always need to sit around trying to dream up the next big idea.
Start looking for the problems that already exist.
Test #2: Would Anyone Notice If You Did It?
Here’s another useful question.
If you implemented the idea tomorrow, would a customer, employee, supplier, or partner notice?
If nobody notices and nothing improves, what exactly did you innovate?
I think companies sometimes become fascinated with innovation for innovation’s sake.
There’s pressure to look modern.
To adopt the newest technology.
To announce something new.
But new isn’t automatically useful.
Customers don’t care how innovative you think you are.
They care about what changes for them.
Does it make their life easier?
Faster?
Safer?
More enjoyable?
Less expensive?
That’s a much better measurement.
Test #3: Can It Survive Outside the Meeting Room?
This is where a lot of ideas get into trouble.
An idea sounds fantastic during a brainstorming session.
Then reality enters the room.
What will it cost?
How long will it take?
Do we have the people to do it?
Will customers understand it?
Can we actually deliver what we’re promising?
What happens when 10 customers use it?
What happens when 10,000 customers use it?
These questions aren’t meant to kill creativity.
They make creativity stronger.
Real world innovation has to live with constraints.
That’s where resourcefulness becomes important.
You may not get the budget you wanted.
You may not have enough employees.
You may have an old computer system.
Fine.
Now what?
Some of the most creative solutions appear when the perfect solution isn’t available.
Test #4: Does It Create Value?
What is real world innovation? It should create value for somebody.
Preferably more than one somebody.
A company might create value for customers by making something easier.
At the same time, it could create value internally by reducing costs.
An innovation could increase revenue.
Improve safety.
Reduce waste.
Strengthen customer loyalty.
Help employees work more effectively.
Make a service more memorable.
Value isn’t always measured in dollars.
But there should be a reason for making the change.
I use a very simple definition of innovation:
A new idea that adds value.
The “adds value” part is crucial.
Without it, we’re just changing things.
Test #5: Can You Try It Before Betting Everything?
People sometimes make innovation far too dramatic.
They think every idea requires a giant launch.
Not necessarily.
One of the smartest habits you can develop is learning how to test an idea cheaply.
Try it with one customer.
One department.
One location.
One event.
One product.
One week.
See what happens.
That gives you real information instead of opinions.
I would rather learn that an idea doesn’t work when I’ve spent $100 than after I’ve spent $100,000.
Small tests also make innovation less frightening.
You aren’t asking everyone to bet the company.
You’re asking:
“What happens if we try this?”
That feels very different.
Test #6: Did You Learn Something?
Not every innovation succeeds.
I wish it did.
Life would be much easier.
But experimentation means some ideas are going to fail.
The important question is whether the failure taught you anything.
Maybe customers didn’t want the feature you thought they wanted.
Great. Now you know.
Maybe they loved another part of the idea.
That’s interesting.
Maybe you discovered a completely different market.
Follow it.
Maybe the price was wrong.
Maybe the timing was wrong.
Maybe the solution was too complicated.
Failure gives you information.
That information can become the beginning of the next idea.
Real innovators aren’t people who never get anything wrong.
They’re people who keep learning.
Test #7: Can Someone Actually Use It?
This might sound obvious, but innovation has to eventually become usable.
I see a big difference between creativity and implementation.
Creativity asks:
“What could we do?”
Implementation asks:
“How do we make it happen?”
Businesses need both.
A company full of imaginative people who never implement anything won’t get very far.
Neither will a company that executes perfectly but never generates anything new.
Real world innovation sits in the middle.
Create.
Test.
Learn.
Adjust.
Implement.
Then keep looking for the next improvement.
Real World Innovation Isn’t Only About Products
Because I’m an inventor, people naturally think of products when I talk about innovation.
But products are only one category.
You can innovate a service.
A sales process.
A business model.
A meeting.
A customer experience.
A pricing structure.
A training program.
A marketing campaign.
A partnership.
A distribution system.
You can even innovate the way you answer the phone.
That’s what makes innovation so accessible.
You don’t need an R&D department.
You need a willingness to notice something that could be better and do something about it.
Stop Trying to Look Innovative
This may sound strange coming from an innovation keynote speaker, but I don’t think companies should spend much time worrying about whether they look innovative.
Worry about whether you’re useful.
Solve something.
Improve something.
Simplify something.
Create something customers care about.
Find a better way to use what you already have.
Notice an opportunity your competitors missed.
Do that consistently and people will eventually call you innovative anyway.
Real World Innovation Is a Verb
Maybe that’s the easiest way to explain it.
Real world innovation is something you do.
You notice.
You question.
You create.
You test.
You change.
You learn.
Then you do it again.
There will always be new technology, new trends, and new buzzwords surrounding innovation.
Those things change.
The basic skill doesn’t.
Someone sees that the current way isn’t good enough and asks:
“What could we do differently?”
Then they actually do something about it.
That’s real world innovation.