Customer-centric innovation

Often when companies innovate, they look for big sexy innovations, but I often think the best innovations are those where you solve problems for consumers that they didn’t even know they had. These innovations can be really small.

I was reminded of this when I was on holiday this year in Greece. I was buying water for my family of 5 and had to carry it back to our sailing boat (it was a flotilla holiday before you accuse me of being a Russian oligarch with a super yacht in each pocket!). In 40 degrees heat you need a lot of water and it’s heavy! So, I was intrigued to see one water brand making a big selling point out of having a convenient foam handle!

Such a simple innovation that made my job of carting water back so much easier…. Guess which water brand I bought for the rest of the holiday?

So, rather than always looking for the new perhaps you should climb into how your customers are using your products and services and think about what you could do to make their lives better with a simple twist