Getting People Involved

Getting the ideas and insights of people who will be using the new process is an ideal way of improving the final design ...

"Test marketing" of a new product or service helps explore customer preferences that provide information about things like pricing policy or advertising, an checks if people really want the new offering. Such testing also offers the chance to test different launch strategies--for example, two different regions could be used, each employing a different launch strategy.

The same principle holds for process innovations inside the organization--changes in "the way we do things around here." Getting the ideas and insights of people who will be using the new process is an ideal way of improving the final design of the process as well as smoothing the route to change.

ACTION POINT: Engage people in product and process change to improve the results of innovation.