Innovation 101: Get your billion-dollar idea by combining Design Thinking & Blue Ocean Strategy
A young upcoming founder this week contacted me to ask about our product. He was interested in pursuing an idea in the recruitment space and I guess he wanted to know my thought process behind our idea. As he swirled in his texting, revealing much about the confusion in his ideation process, I kept wondering how many young founders follow a process when coming up with solutions to problems. What was more fascinating was that we are completely making a turnaround in our product because 5 months later after our site went up, we finally had our Aha moment. So the young lad should have rather asked me, “What do you know now that you didn’t know when you started?”
In a school program or exercise where ideation is hurriedly done, it's likely that you will miss out on very key messages that your market is trying to relay. The other biggest mistake is people go out into the market with ideas in their heads already about the problems the customer is having. This means that during customer development, you’re just looking for cues to support your big idea and not out researching with an open mind which might lead you to an even better idea. The purpose of a business is to create a customer- Peter Drucker. And customer discovery as described by Steve Blank, is founded on customer obsession, not idea obsession. Innovation is a continuous process where you’re constantly learning how to solve the customer’s problems.
This is also the big essence of the Lean Startup Movement by Eric Ries. We’re constantly evaluating what the right solution to the problem is because “A startup is a human institution that operates under conditions of extreme uncertainty.” This means your startup is operating within a market that has many moving forces that, whether you like it or not, affect your idea. So if you’re looking at your problem and customer from a laser view, chances are you will miss out a lot. The same also applies if you go too far up the sky and try to capture too many things.
My favorite tools for innovation so far are Design Thinking and Blue Ocean Strategy. Taking a human-centered approach to innovation i.e. “Getting out of the building” can help you gain a broader perspective of the problem. But remember, most of the time, your users are good at describing the problems they are facing but they won’t come up with the solution. That’s up to you. And that’s why Steve Jobs also realized, that better IT solutions for Apple were not going to be derived from the market. Because the market can be doing the wrong things too. So isn't this a contradiction to the human-centred approach? Absolutely NOT! And that’s where Blue Ocean Strategy comes in. We use the information gathered from the market research we have conducted and then combine it with tactics outlined in Blue Ocean to come up with an innovative solution. Let’s look at some simple examples:
Twitter Ideation Process
Potential Issues users have with Facebook: Too much noise. The app has become too ‘big’ for me. It’s hard to sift through all the noise to just the specific content I would like e.g from specific users or on specific topics. Sometimes I don’t want to see people’s personal updates, wedding photos or funerals. There are influencers I like to follow, but their posts get lost in my news feed. The friend limit sucks.
Ok, that sounds like a good start. So if we go ahead and ask the same users, what better way they could see their problem being solved, they won’t say, “Oh I wish I had an app that just brings me the content I like but also allows me to follow my favorite people & friends.” They will just utter, “Oh I don’t know. Maybe a better way for me to filter the content on my feed. Maybe Facebook should add an option at the top for filter.”
Blue Ocean Ideation:
So we go out into the market again and see what solutions exist right? Yes and No. A problem that can arise from stressing competitor analysis is your thinking & creativity tend to become constrained and you start thinking like your competitors when in essence you’re also trying to come up with a solution that will differentiate you in the market. So you tend to become We’re like X for Y or We’re like X but 1x times better because of this 1 feature.
Did you know that in 2005 in Turkey, A Sheep Committed Suicide By Jumping Off A Cliff And 1500 Sheep Followed The First One!— ABCFacts
Just do a simple competitor analysis so you get a picture of what’s in the market and what value each of these solutions is bringing to the market. Then how do we create a new value using Blue Ocean for our social media users?
Go back to your customer interview sheets ( what we call insights) and here’s where you will find your Aha moment. Use the scripts(and market data e.g trends reports, predictions, etc)to answer the following;
i. What factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard?
Content- Let’s reduce the characters allowed per post or the type of posts allowed
ii. Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?
Hashtags and trending topics- let’s put all the hot topics that everyone in your network is talking about in one place so you can keep up with what’s trending.
iii. Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard?
Clout(following)- Let’s allow people with a big # of followers to have unlimited connection requests. And why not allow just anyone to have as many connections as possible and be an influencer?
iv. Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
Limited Sharing-Let’s eliminate the tradition that you only share content with people that you follow or know.
Case 2: Apple vs IBM
i. What factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard?
Size: A machine’s size is not directly proportional to its performance capacity.
ii. Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?
Design: Let’s make it shiny and colorful with fancy fonts
iii. Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard?
Performance: Just because it’s a personal PC, doesn’t mean it should be lesser performing with little memory
iv. Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
Hardware: Let’s make it less bulky. Let’s remove the CPU and have the entire unit as one object.
Peripherals: Let’s have inbuilt tools like the touchpad, Bluetooth, webcam
Case 3: ATS vs Jobonics
i. What factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard?
Inhouse assessments-Hello Blockchain! Why should recruiting information just belong to one company? If we post 300 accounting jobs in a year, why shouldn’t recruiters share their candidate’s data results & assessments?
ii. Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?
In Africa- A real database with candidates who have listed skills that have been tested and proven. A ranking of candidates based on their niche markets according to their skill sets.
iii. Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard?
Engagement- The application process is boring, long & uninspiring. Let’s increase team involvement, competition & fun.
iv. Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
CVs- They are highly biased and do not predict performance in any way. They can’t test for certain qualities. Let’s have a Cv-free system.
Check this out for another case study by Steve Blank.
Conclusion: Embrace the Power of Design Thinking and Blue Ocean Strategy for Innovation
As we venture further into the world of innovation, it’s crucial to understand that successful products aren’t just built from a single idea — they are the result of continuous learning, iteration, and a deep understanding of customer needs. The combination of Design Thinking and Blue Ocean Strategy provides a powerful framework for founders and innovators to step beyond conventional solutions and create something truly game-changing.
By adopting a human-centered approach through Design Thinking, you ensure that your solutions resonate with real user problems, while Blue Ocean Strategy pushes you to think outside the competitive landscape and create new market spaces. The key is not to blindly follow what others are doing but to look at the market with a fresh perspective, challenge industry norms, and uncover opportunities that others have overlooked.
Remember, innovation is a journey, not a destination. It’s about staying curious, listening to your customers, and using that feedback to pivot and refine your solutions. As the Lean Startup movement teaches us, the fastest path to success is learning and failing quickly. So, whether you’re in the early stages of ideation or looking to refine an existing product, let these frameworks guide you toward a more meaningful and impactful innovation journey.
Now, more than ever, is the time to build products that don’t just serve existing needs but create new ones. Here’s to a year of discovering your Aha moments, challenging the status quo, and unlocking the full potential of your ideas.
Stay curious, keep innovating, and remember: the best solutions often come when you least expect them. All the best in your innovation journey this year!
For more, check out https://stellangugi.medium.com/the-series-of-founders-dilemmas-bk-as-shown-in-startup-ssn-2-tv-series-9de523663a7f
