Innovation Groundwork

1. Innovation Groundwork

2. The Innovation Process

3. Key Groundwork Outputs • Data sources tool • Competitive environment summary • Market map • Initial opportunity size estimate • Learning plan stage one

4. Data sources tool • Document both the data that you have and the data that you don’t have. Knowledge is power and you can guarantee that the market leaders have lots of data

5. Competitive Environment summary • It is vital that you have an understanding of the competitive environment. • Using what ever data and information resources you can get your hands on, you should capture what the competitive situation is in the sector you are developing. • A fair amount of this will come from the desk research that you complete so check your ‘sources’ tool to see what information you have on competitors. • Once you have information to work with you should then move on to completing the competitive environment summary tool. • This tool will help you think about the competitive set in a systematic way to make sure you don’t miss anything…

6. Competitive environment tool • If you have multiple product ideas, complete this for each different target audience

7. Market Map • It is useful to develop a ‘map’ of the market to allow you to begin to understand the competitive set - a 2x2 matrix with whatever axes create the segmentation you believe exists • A good starting point is buying all the brands and products you can find in the sector you want to develop then placing the products on a table and coming up with ‘groups’ or categories that you think makes sense in the market. • Try to think about how the consumer might group the various products and brandsand take cues from packaging designs, web-sites, advertising, etc.

8. Market map tool • Market maps can be conducted at various levels, for example, total cars (as shown) or just for Sports cars that could be segmented with perhaps price on one axis and performance vs style on another axis • Start at the macro level and drill down until you can create a 2x2 matrix with the white space that you are targeting – this is the opportunity you have identified

9. Opportunity size estimate • Sometimes there is a gap in a market for a reason – ensure your opportunity is sizeable and sustainable. • Using market share and/or sales data, try to put cash values against each category created in your market map • If the market is changing due to external influences, consider also estimating future values and document the justification for your predicted changes

10. Opportunity size estimate tool

11. Groundwork learning plan • The learning plan is a tool that ensures you put the consumer at the heart of every decision you make on your innovation journey. • By completing a learning plan at every stage of the innovation journey, you will find your thinking and strategy will become increasingly more refined and focused. • The learning plan tool prompts you to answer two very simple questions: What do you already know? What do you still need to know? • Answering these questions in a systematic way will help you identify knowledge gaps that you need to fill. • As you fill each of these gaps on the innovation journey you will find your new product or innovation will have a better chance of meeting a genuine consumer opportunity.

12. Groundwork learning plan