Don't innovate, it can kill your business. How can that be?
Let's use the touchscreen phone as an example:
Innovation was developing the touchscreen phone when flip phones were ubiquitous. It completely changed the interaction and experience with the device. The problem is no one remembers who did it...
Most people would tell you it was Apple. They are wrong. Apple was not the first one to create a touchscreen phone and offer it for sale. LG, Samsung, Nokia, and IBM offered one prior to the release of the iPhone.
Apple was the first to focus on Value Creation by utilizing the touchscreen with a phone. Steve Jobs wanted it to be an entertainment device. Just that statement alone provides direction on decision making for the project. It needed to switch between portrait and landscape, it needed a soft keyboard so the screen could be as big as possible for content, it got its own web browser to make it visually similar to desktops, and it used a sensor to prevent unwanted screen interactions.
These are benefits, not features. This is the value that people were purchasing.
The following year they released the app store. That cemented Apple as the innovator associated with the touchscreen phone. Would a company just focused on making a touchscreen phone invest the money, effort, and time needed to develop an app store? No. History proves they didn't.
What's the lesson here?
Don't be the company that innovates, be the company that focuses on value creation.
If you want to learn more about the iPhone's development and the landscape at that time read Build by Tony fadell and this article: https://www.iphonelife.com/content/first-iphone
(I post to inspire people with the psychology of design, reframing problems, the impact design has on business, improving relationships with clients & designers, and how contrarian ideas are crucial for success. Follow me if you are interested in any of these topics!)
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