Introduction
I recently attended an Innovation Clinic as part of UCLAN which crammed an incredible amount of detail into a very short series of lectures and practical workshops. This series of posts is based upon that Clinic.
The Gap in the Market
There are a number of elements that people attribute to making a product that is desired and successful but we can distill this down to three simple questions.
- Is it a good idea?
- Is there a gap in a market?
- Is there a reason there is a gap in the market?
While the first two of these are simple yes/no answers question 3 is a little more complex. You need to think about that gap in the market, why does it exist, why has no-one used it and is it a good gap to bring a product into.
The gap may be a trap, there might be a good reason that the gap exists in that there is no demand and no value gained by anything in that gap. You should be wary, so do a little research to so if anyone has previously looked into a similar solution and use feedback from trusted friends and colleagues.
I can assure you that it is possible to build scooters for chickens, I can assure you that there is a gap in both the poultry transportation and the scooter market for such a product. I can also assure you that aside from the comedic or surrealist value there would be few willing to invest in a Scooticken(™).
...and Next
In the following articles we are going to talk a little bit about making informed decisions and some of the metrics that might be used to make them. Throughout the series I am going to rely on you understanding one thing, Innovation might be a singular experience but it shouldn’t be a singular journey. You are going to need people to help you and you are going to have to trust them with your ideas and believe in them for their feedback.
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