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Business Strategy and Innovation

Breakthrough Innovation Questions

Examine binding constraints
What is the biggest hassle of purchasing or using our product?
What are some examples of ad hoc modifications that customers have made to our product?
For which current customers is our product least suited?
For what particular usage occasions is our product least suited?
Which customers does the industry prefer not to serve, and why?
Which customers could be major users if we could remove one specific barrier we’ve never previously considered?
Imagine perfection
How would we do things differently if we had perfect information about our buyers, usage, distribution channels, and so on?
How would our product change if it were tailored for every customer?
Revisit the premises underlying our processes and products
Which technologies embedded in our product have changed the most since the product was last redesigned?
Which technologies underlying our production processes have changed the most since we last rebuilt our manufacturing and distribution systems?
Which customers’ needs are shifting most rapidly? What will they be in five years?
Look beyond the boundaries of our business
Who else is dealing with the same generic problem as we are but for an entirely different reason? How have they addressed it?
What major breakthroughs in efficiency or effectiveness have we made in our business that could be applied in another industry?
What information about customers and product use is created as a by-product of our business that could be the key to radically improving the economics of another business?
Explore unexpected successes
Who uses our product in ways we never expected or intended?
Who uses our product in surprisingly large quantities?
"De-average" buyers and users
Which customers use or purchase our product in the most unusual way?
Do any customers need vastly more or less sales and service attention than most?
For which customers are the support costs (order entry, tracking, customer-specific design) either unusually high or unusually low?
Could we still meet the needs of a significant subset of customers if we stripped 25% of the hard or soft costs out of our product?
Who spends at least 50% of what our product costs to adapt it to their specific needs?
8 Category Levers
Different Benefit
What is a radically different benefit we can offer the customer/end user?
Different Experience
How can we make the experience so distinct that it is worthy of a price premium?
Different Price
How can we change the way consumers perceive value that is radically different?
Different Manufacturing
What radically different way can we make what we market?
Different Distribution
How might we distribute/sell what we offer in a totally unique manner?
What hook can we create that drives our most evangelistic customers (aka our Superconsumers) to spread our new category and offering virally and organically?
Different marketing
How might we drive category awareness/consideration in a way no one else does?
Different profit model
How can we make money that is radically different from others?
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