Innovation Insights
by Stephen Shapiro

The standard questions associated with innovation of lead us down the wrong path.

Here are ten questions you can ask your team to help you move in the right direction.

1. ‘Instead of asking, “What’s the next big trend?“, ask, “What will remain constant in our industry over the next 5-10 years?“
2. Instead of asking, “How can we pivot our business?” ask, “How can we go deeper and create more value for our existing customers?“
3. Instead of asking, “What new products or services should we offer?” ask, “What can we eliminate or stop doing to better serve our customers and achieve clarity of focus?”
4. Instead of asking, “How can we innovate?” ask, “Where should we innovate to maximize impact and align with our differentiator?“
5. Instead of asking, “How can we be better than the competition?” ask, “How can we be different from the competition in a way that matters to our customers?”
6. Instead of asking, “What do we need to improve internally?” ask, “What do our customers truly value, and how can we focus on delivering that?”
7. Instead of asking, “How can we reduce costs?” ask, “How can we create more value that customers are willing to pay for?”
8. Instead of asking, “How do we get more customers?” ask, “How do we deepen relationships with our most valuable customers?”
9. Instead of asking, “How can we prevent disruptions to our business?” ask, “How can we proactively embrace disruptions and use them to our advantage?”
10. Instead of asking, “What do we need to communicate to our team?” ask, “How can we help every team member understand and live our differentiator in their daily work?”

These concepts are covered in my book, PIVOTAL: Creating Stability in an Uncertain World.