How to remove risk from software innovation

As a digital innovation studio, we’re biased when it comes to investing in innovation. I mean, of course we are… we’re innovation merchants - it’s what we do.
But that also means we’ve had a front row seat both to how transformative innovation efforts can be when they succeed… and how disastrous they can be when they fail.
It can be a high risk / high reward gambit; but it’s a gambit that can become far less risky.
Let me explain.
When it comes to working with more early-stage or startup companies, investing in innovation isn’t a hard sell from us… it’s what these companies are in the stages of doing.
In situations like that, it’s much more about who is the right partner to get them where they’re trying to go. We have systemized processes and frameworks we use to help shepherd these companies through the process of innovating or bringing a Minimum Lovable Product to market.
We love this work, but it’s a specific kind of work.
When it comes to our work with enterprise clients, however, the decision calculus is completely different.
The stakes are often much higher - you have a broad base of clients who already rely on your company and its product/services. You have short-term P&L pressure in a way that startups typically don’t. Enterprise organizations are large - with numerous stakeholders - so getting any big project approved can be like crossing a field of landmines.
You also just have an entire corporate apparatus dedicated to keeping the lights on, servicing your current clients, etc. That entire bureaucracy rarely wants to try and upend everything in the name of innovation.
But perhaps more than all of that… it can be very, very expensive to innovate inside of a large company. It can take a truckload of time, effort, resources and capital to even try to innovate… and even then, there’s no guarantee you’re going to succeed. With that kind of pressure also comes an aversion to putting yourself on the line to champion innovation. If things blow up spectacularly? You don’t want to be the one holding the proverbial bag.
So what do you do? If you’re a big company and you know you need to be innovating in order to stay competitive in your market or industry… how do you embrace a culture of innovation while avoiding the pitfalls?
How do you take the risk out of innovating?
Here’s a sneak peak of how we guide both startups and enterprises through the necessary exercise of innovating, while reducing the inherent risks
:
🏁 Begin with the end in mind
🔬 Experimentation is key
🏋️ How to expend minimum effort to get maximum validation
🪂 Why failing fast is actually a good thing
🧐 How to align stakeholders to embrace an innovation mindset and build a culture of innovation going forward