The world’s big into innovation nowadays. We celebrate the innovators. But I believe a lot of what we call innovation is just good design.
You see; innovation needs to help us do something we previously couldn’t do, or at least do it in a different way than we previously were able. So making a different-shaped phone isn’t innovation, it’s just design.
I think of the perfect example of the cell phone. The cell phone was an innovation. But for years, we merely made different designs. Then the iPhone comes on the scene and we’re able to do so much more with a phone. It changes the game because it’s an innovation.
Another phone comes on the scene with slightly different features and design, but that’s just design. The innovation is about solving a problem humanity has in a new way.
I think that’s the key to innovation: starting from the question of the need we have. Until we identify a need that this innovation needs to meet, it’s just changing designs or making a novelty item.
I believe there’s an opportunity for us to innovate in our lives. It isn’t just about releasing new technology or creating new products. People have the chance to identify a problem in their lives and innovate a solution to it.
The key is to identify the right problem and ask the right question. Too often, we ask A/B questions…questions with only two solutions. But when we embrace questions that ask “why” or “how”, that opens us up to new options for innovation.
Then it’s just about finding solutions to a problem, and finding solutions to things that limit those solutions from working. That’s all innovation is. Design comes later in the process.
But imagine how you could innovate in your life if you just began asking the right questions.