TEDxKrakow - Matt Marsh - People shaped innovation

[eh7913]

I had the pleasure to work with Matt on several project for Cisco…. It was great to work with him and also great see this speech! In many aspects of business, the same technology and development resources are available to all players. Global companies need to find new ways to differentiate, and people and design driven innovation has assumed a new strategic role for this. Matt, thanks for putting more focus on this area and keep up the good work…

[firsthandexperience]

Hi @eh7913. That's great. Thank you. Nothing like a bit of encouragement. Best wishes, Matt

[firsthandexperience]

@eh7913 Also, if you want more info on people-shaped approaches to innovation, there is a non-commecial campaign website that has a white paper, articles, an agony uncle (me!) slides, and some funnies. To find it, do a google search on peopleshaped (one word). Matt

[mjasman]

Sure - I guess some insight and testing is better than none at all, unless of course you're 100% confident that people are going to go crazy for your product even if they didn't know they needed it!

[firsthandexperience]

Hi mjasman. Fair point. I take the view that if your making something genuinely novel, generally, you can't ask people what they want next - like in a focus group setting where people are asked to express a preference. But you can show people early propositions prototypes to discover what works and was doesn't.  The point I was trying to make is that some folk use the "you can't ask them" as an excuse to simply not bother doing anything - which I think is more about being lazy.

[mjasman]

Interesting talk Matt and I agree there are times this thinking should be applied but what about the argument that people don't know what they want until you show it to them?

[yairnewman]

inspiring indeed!

[simonbrussjones]

Steve Jobs was a genius but he somehow managed to make listening to customers seem uncool to some people. So, it is very refreshing to hear Matt put the case for a people centric approach to early stage innovation. Bravo!

[firsthandexperience]

@simonbrussjones Hi Simon. I think this is the quote from the great man that you refer to:

"We do no market research. We don't hire consultants . . .We just want to make great products."

CNNMoney / Fortune, February 2008

But he also said this too (and lots of other things like it):

"When we create stuff, we do it because we listen to customers, get their inputs and also throw in what we'd like to see, too."

CNBC.com, 5 September 2007

Maybe, we're not so far apart after all.