Prototyping and Innovation
Prototyping is basically problem solving. Prototyping can help you visualize anything that you want. You can prototype anything from a product, service, or program. What prototyping does is that it gets the ball rolling forward. Prototyping allows you to build on a part of your vision. It also allows you to learn whether an idea is feasible or not.
Build Your Greenhouse
Innovation and braintorming is not a solo effort. To create a new product or program you need teams. These teams need places to thrive and grow, and that is where a greenhouse comes in. Greenhouses are places where the elements are right to foster growth of good ideas. This is the workplace. As a marketing manager, making sure that your team feels comfortable in their workplace is of great importance.
Expect the Unexpected
The team at IDEO refer to this as looking at things "cross-eyed", and finding answers to problems in places you least expect. As a marketing manager, answers to problems in the innovation process may come from a customer or even a family memeber. The solution is to put these answers to use in the innovation process when producing your concept.
Creating Experiences
Innovation is about creating an experience for both your customers and your employees. As a marketing manager, making this experience fun and interactive for all will generate more ideas and more solutions to problems. You can turn almost any product or service into a better designed experience just by encouraging the process.
Speed: Zero to Sixty
No matter what, speed still counts. As a marketing manager you can't allow your team to miss deadlines. The faster your team works at an efficient pace, the more ideas are tossed around, and the more prototyping can be done. Things such as speed tests can be implemented to see if your team is being as efficient as you would like them to be.
Coloring Outside the Lines
Life is all about risk. This is no diferent when it comes to making a new product or program. As a marketing manager you must dare to be different when it comes to innovation. The team at IDEO is known for repeatedly thinking outside of the box, and producing things that nobody has ever seen before. It is up to the marketing manager to encourage this type of thinking amongst his or her team.