The Better Reality Innovation Process

1. Customer Discovery + Ideation

Everything starts with the customer and his struggle with a problem. What are the tasks that he‘s trying to make progress on?  What problems, annoyances and intangibles does he stumble on regularly?  Join him on a customer journey… accompany him through his stories or observe his approach. By doing this, you get to really understand his behavior, his thinking, his language in typical situations. You learn what irritates him and what spurs him on.  First product ideas crystallise and solidify, becoming more and more concrete. These ideas are brought systematically to paper and lead to a “Problem – Solution Fit”.

2. Prototyping + Testing

With detailed knowledge of the customer profile, you can develop your own tailor-made solutions. Sketches are the first prototypes, but these are by no means the minimal form of the final product. These initial solutions focus on the customers’ key and most important issues as minimum requirements and characteristics (MVP).  Implemented as sketches, home-made videos, cardboard boxes and fake apps, the sketches are used as a tool to test, during the dialog with the customer, which benefits and values they see in the solution.  It usually takes several attempts to identify the right value for the right customer. Statistics speak of a 60% change from the original idea. Properly done, this prototyping and testing process with little investment of money and time, guarantees that solutions are found, for which there really is a market. This problem solving process is carried out and adapted until such times as a “Product-Market Fit” is achieved.

At this stage, the competition are also rigorously analysed. Are you working on a solution that already exists? You need a unique selling proposition and that has to be worked out systematically.

3. Business Modeling + Sourcing

How do the elements + players interact in this solution ecosystem? Which team of colleagues and partners is necessary to tackle all critical activities? How do you reach your potential customers and where can they buy? Or will they rent? Maybe pay nothing? Do you have all the resources? Can you use your business idea to make more money than costs? Here we experiment with many options and look for all the critical hypotheses that are hidden in the business model. They have to be validated so that in the end, the “Business Model Fit” succeeds.

4. Scaling

Certainly one of the biggest challenges in the innovation process is the growth phase. From each of the many experimental cycles with customers, the first product version slowly develops. Now stability and profitability are increasingly required. In the majority of cases, a challenge for the original idea drivers. How will profitable growth succeed? How do you win the first paying customers? How do you attract investors, whether Business-Angels, VCs, banks or in-house budgets? How do you prevail in a competitive environment? A good sales and marketing strategy is now required.

Where do you find highly motivated colleagues and team players who are prepared to take on the growing tasks? What qualities and characteristics do they have to bring along? Do they all understand the basic motivation for innovation, the WHY? Because only then are they able to make the right decisions. How do you calculate the capital requirements and complete the first major contracts? How do you scale in international markets? Experts from different fields and with a lot of experience are now your companions. Will the “Execution Fit?” Succeed?