Luis Pérez-Breva and the Factory of Innovation. Kill your Ideas!
By C&J
'A leap of imagination': Products are the result of innovation, but problems are really the beginning.Luis Pérez-Breva
On February 21, within the framework of the Innovation, Strategy and Growth seminar at Harvard Faculty House organized in Boston by Lead to Change, led by Xavier Marcet, we attended a module that rarely happens, where some assumed grounds are broken, and new paths are drawn to show us the forthcoming years in the field of innovation.
The module was given by Luis Pérez-Breva, an academic of absolute reference at @MIT. Pérez-Breva is Innovation Teams Faculty Lead at MIT, founder of Polaris Wireless and head of the Flagship VentureLabs Fellows innovation program.
The logic of his arguments, based on experience and data, and the simplicity he is capable of to present the innovation model he defends (the Innovation Factory) is amazing. Through several examples, he told us that the concept of traditional innovation, as many understand it, may not be as effective as expected in many cases. On the contrary, he clarified his vision through the pillars of his proposal based on 3 ideas and 2 principles:
IDEAS:
- New language:
- Traditional innovation is full of words that have nothing to do with innovation (disruption, lean, agile, MVP) or ideas that are not necessarily synonymous with innovation (fail fast, fail forward).
- Imagination gap: Expression that alludes to the fact that products must always be the result of an innovation process and, most importantly, the start to innovate must always be a problem to be solved.
- Tools, start with what you do have:
- Innovation is about solving the problems that really matter, BUT with the tools, resources and knowledge that are already available.
- It is important to introduce into the innovation process concepts of circularity and sustainability such as reusing or recycling (ideas) or redefining the purpose of an action.
- Innovating continuously:
- Innovation has more to do with building ideas than guessing innovative solutions.
- Ideas are hunches and in order to survive and innovate, an organization needs to combine and repurpose many of its parts.
- Innovation should be an exercise in solving the problems that really matter.
PRINCIPLES:
- Diversify
- Diversification of ideas is the only rational option against maximum uncertainty.
- Economies of scale (De-risk)
- The ‘Innovation Factory’ is based on the production method and ed-risk ideas. This can be done by ‘reusing’ and ‘recycling’ ideas.
- In innovation, the economy of scale should be articulated in imagining a problem solved, not the final solution, and then working backwards in the process.
Here are some phrases that we kept and that can give us an idea of the concepts he defends:
- Innovation has more to do with building ideas (‘pull’, ‘backwards’ flow), than with guessing solutions (‘push’, ‘forwards’ flow).
- The diversification of ideas is the only rational option against the maximum uncertainty.
- Failed ideas always have to be ‘reusable’.
- Progress, ‘kill your ideas!’, and you will prove their viability.
- Innovation has nothing to do with the celebration of failure (‘fail fast’, ‘fail forward’).
- Continuous innovation starts by focusing on solving problems that really matter.
- The expression ‘Lean Start-up’ is an unproductive legend.
- Imagination gap: the products are the result of innovation, but the problems are actually the beginning.
- In innovation we should work with the tools, resources and knowledge that are available.
- Problem-Solving Wisdom: Imagine the problem solved, not the solution, and then work backwards in the process.
- Technology is the ability to recombine purposes of things.
- If you want to innovate, don’t pursue the product, pursue problems to solve.
- Fight disruption, rather than looking for it.
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