April's Top 3 Innovation Trends and Topics

What is happening in the innovation community right now? In this post, I give a quick overview of the top trends and issues based on the interactions and inspirations I have had over the last month or so.

1. User-driven innovation – does it work?

How valuable is user input for innovation? This is a classic discussion that picked up more steam with this article, User-Led Innovation Can’t Create Breakthroughs; Just Ask Apple and IKEA, by Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen who states that companies should lead their users, not the other way around.

The article spurred lots of re-tweets, comments and a several counter-articles such as this one by Chris Grams, User-led innovation can’t create breakthroughs. Really?, and this one by Erin Young, Counterpoint: Does Apple Value User Research?.

The topic has also surfaced on several of my recent client meetings. Classic topic, but it can still get the discussions going.

2. Smartfailing – learning from failure

This started last year and it just continues to be a hot topic. One clear sign is the on-going flow of quality articles that provides insights on how to better learn from failure.

Here are some examples:

• Don’t Fail Fast – Learn Fast
• Today’s Innovation Can Rise from Yesterday’s Failure
• Wanna Solve Impossible Problems? Find Ways to Fail Quicker
• Admitting Failure
• The Positive Power of Failure
• Failure is Failure
• Why Failure Drives Innovation

I will also host a panel on smartfailing at the upcoming 3rd Annual Open Innovation Summit (save $100 with code QUF654), which takes place in Chicago on August 10-12, 2011. The panelists are Chris Thoen from P&G, Andy Gilicinski from Clorox and John Johnson from PepsiCo. This will be a great discussion…

3. Social Media Tools

Yes, this is one of my favorite personal topics, but it is also something that is picking up interest among clients, in blogs/media and at conferences. The intersection of social media tools and (open) innovation seems to draw interest as these topics are still at their early stages while showing lots of promise.

You can read more on this here: Overview of Social Media Tools and Open Innovation

What other trends, key issues and challenges do you see out there?

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Stefan Lindegaard is a speaker, network facilitator and strategic advisor who focus on the topics of open innovation, intrapreneurship and how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation