The Superiority of Design Driven Innovation

As I am a design - driven engineer, it is my viewpoint that this method of innovation and creation is generally the best and most effective. There are a lot of reasons why design driven innovation can be seen as better than other types of innovation. The below diagram outlines the spectrum of innovations and what factors drive the different types of innovations along the innovation process.

       Tech push and demand pull fall short as innovation methods as they do not fully encompass the factors that lead to a lasting and adapted innovation. The diagram above illustrates the places where each type of innovation specializes.

        Market Pull innovation is largely demand based; a market pull innovation occurs in response to fulfilling a market made ‘need’ in a market that already exists. These innovations are often made to follow a trend in the market, what is demanded by consumers at the time.  This type of innovation often falls short because as the trends change, so does the market demand and innovation must be constantly occurring to adapt and follow the market pull.

          Tech Push innovation is a type of innovation that can be largely radical and can lead to an influx of products that are not always necessary. It seems that sometimes Tech Push innovations occur to fill needs that do not previously exist, which can be viewed as frivolous invention. Some of these innovations might be adapted and successful, but if they are not, it creates more ‘stuff’ that just clutters the market. Tech push innovations do not create a new market but they intrude upon an existing one. An innovation that creates a new market is the general hope of most innovation and thus, it is my belief that superior to Tech Push and Market Pull is Design Driven innovation.

            There are many reasons why Design Driven innovation outweighs both Tech Push and Market Pull innovation. Design Driven innovation creates something that encompasses new meaning. In one of my recent readings I read by Roverto Verganti I read the quote, “People do not buy products, but meanings.” This quote encompasses Design Driven innovations and why they are for the most part the most successful, as they encompass new meaning which is what people are looking to buy. A product is useless if a person cannot determine how the product can add meaning to their lives in some way.

             In my own recent innovation process my team and I made a discovery that led to the outlining of a Design Driven innovation project. The first step in any successful innovation process is doing market research, and in our case it was observing people studying and conducting interviews about what people might need to make their time studying better. We hypothesized that for people studying along in public areas, it might be difficult for them to get up for short amounts of time to get a snack or use the restroom without having to take all of their belongings with them.  The Design Driven innovation process consists of conducting research into what consumers might actually need, and thus often has positive market performance as it the innovation has been approved by a sample before it goes to market. In our research we found that often people felt tied to their public study space. It was difficult and involved risk for them to get up for a short period of time and leave their belongings for fear that they would be stolen. The feedback we got was that people wanted to be able to safety leave their stuff for a short period of time without the risk of their belongings being stolen before they returned.

         Phase two of Design Driven innovation once a need have been determined in an existing market is the testing of a concept. This is crucial in Design Driven innovation as it helps to determine the existing need further and if it has been addressed properly by the innovation. For our design project we created a detailed sketch prototype of a GPS lock that could be attached to belongings that would sound an alarm if the items were moved further than a specified trigger radius before the owner returned; GPS tracking was also a feature in the innovation to ensure the item could be tracked if the alarm wasn’t enough of a deterrent. The feedback we gathered was primarily positive as the product was easy to identify as a lock and not particularly hard to figure out how it worked. Many people we asked said that they would use something like our lock and seemed very interested in the idea. By producing a prototype that people can comprehend and examine, it better determines the success of a potential innovation, as you are able to get market related feedback about it.

          Design Driven innovation is superior to Market Pull and Tech Push as it creates something that carries new meaning. A Design Driven innovation is both proven by extensive market research and also testing, which makes the innovation more credible when brought to market as its success has already been primarily tested and approved by consumers. Because a Design innovation focuses on satisfying a consumer need it makes the product stronger as it creates a new market of consumers, and this is ultimately the goal of innovation as it makes the innovation most strong.