Launching an innovation is an exercise in persuasive communications. Only rarely can someone go from an idea to the marketplace without any help. (And, even then, innovations don’t sell themselves.)
Along the way, an innovator needs partners to provide access, financial backing, criticism, ideas, skill, effort, and perspectives. But think of the challenge. With an established product, like an ice cream cone, collaborators and customers know what you’re talking about. You can compare your ice cream cones with others that are for sale. You can show people what they look like and give them a taste.
At the beginning of an innovation’s path to the market, there may only be an idea, a sketch or a computer animation. The purpose, value, need and potential all need to be explained. You are selling a dream.
I went into some detail on how to develop ideas in an article, “What’s the Big Idea?”, but there are three questions that you must answer before you pitch. And there are ways answers to each can run into trouble.
What is it? This seems simple enough, but we often are so close to an innovative idea that we leave things out. Or we provide too much information. The trick is saying what needs to be said to be clear, and no more.
When I was a radio producer, I interviewed scores of scientists and engineers. I always let them tell me about their discoveries and inventions their own way first, and I rarely used those explanations. They were valuable because they forced the interviewee to put some words around the idea. Once the statement was made, I asked clarifying questions, and then I asked the question that got things going: How would you explain what you have done to your barber (or hairdresser or mother)? At this point, the original explanation was transformed. Simpler, and more direct. Often enlivened by similes and metaphors. Sometimes there was a need for rephrasing, but often the whole idea poured out in one or two sentences. I had the answer to “what is it.”
Who is it for? This question points at the market, whether it is internal or external. Some innovators think everyone should love their idea because it is so brilliant, but the more common problem I’ve seen is limited thinking. Ideas are often born because of a specific problem, but the best of them are more broadly valuable. If you want to get other people to partner with you, it is better to point toward 5,000 users than 50. This can take some effort, but sympathetic people in your network can help identify bigger pools of users.
Why is it valuable? I had an occasion where an inventor told me his invention was indispensable because it was the first device based on two theoretical principles. In general, this is not something that gets a corporate executive or a venture capitalist excited. We danced through some repetitions, and I redirected the conversation to who would use his invention and, significantly, what they used now to accomplish the same goal. As it turned out, his invention made the process faster and more efficient. Saving time and saving money are values. Ease of use is a value. Greater access is a value. The value is the value to the user, not the creator, so the better the creator knows about the needs, obstacles and interests of the user, the simpler it is to answer this question.
Of course, the same question needs more answers. A venture capitalist wants to know what the advantage is to the user, but he or she also wants to know how he or she will benefit from an investment. The same thing is true for whatever audience – collaborator, manager, executive, etc. – may be receiving the pitch.
The idea is the hardest thing to pitch, and it may be in the innovator’s interest to avoid pitching people whose help may not be needed immediately and who may respond better to an invention, a process or a service that is more developed. Steve Jobs didn’t show off touchscreens, he showed off iPhones and iPads. (And it is worthwhile considering how complete and focused his pitches were, even for these completed products when they were new and unfamiliar.)
Presentation skills matter, too. Search on innovation elevator pitch, and you’ll find helpful sites and even videos of people making such pitches.
I hope this and the other entries in my Saving Innovation series are helping you to slip changes into your organization, no matter how resistant it is. One constant concern is resources. In Frugal Innovation, I wrote about life-changing innovation under severe resource constraints. I’ll revisit those lessons next time and discuss how they might be applied within a large organization.