Innovation X: Why a Company's Toughest Problems Are Its Greatest Advantage [Hardcover]

Adam Richardson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2010

A fresh approach to succeeding with innovation, grounded in insights about rapidly changing customers, competitors and technologies

Written by a director at the award-winning global innovation firm frog design, this vital book shows business leaders and managers how to accomplish truly effective innovation in today's disruptive climate. Richardson shows how business is filled with "X-problems"- tough new challenges that present massive innovation opportunities, but also risks. Thriving in a world of X-problems requires harnessing four specific approaches: Immersion, Convergence, Divergence, and Adaption. Combining frog design's approaches with insightful analysis of companies such as Apple, BMW, Clif Bar, Google, Maxtor, and Salesforce.com, Richardson illustrates how to envision and realize successful new business ventures, products, and services.

• Provides a process for translating customer insights into relevant innovations, accompanied by case studies (many of them richly described from frog's own experiences)
• For the first time, gives real guidance on connecting products, software and services into ecosystems that are actually compelling to customers
• Shows how to facilitate bringing multiple perspectives to understanding a problem domain, as well as how to manage an innovation portfolio over time

Innovation X is an essential guide for companies seeking to create growth and differentiation in increasingly competitive markets.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Richardson shows us that spending time on solving an inextricable problem opens up incomparable innovation perspectives.' (Business Digest, February 2011).

From the Inside Flap

The word innovation is one of the most widely used—and misunderstood—terms in business. What used to be a means to create a successful enterprise, improve the lives of customers, and make the world a better place has been distorted to become an end in itself—usually nebulous in definition and almost always immeasurable.

Clearly, innovation is broken. But innovation is not the problem. The problem is the problem—and the solution.

Innovation X defines a new class of business problems— X-Problems—tough new challenges that thwart conventional planning but present massive innovation opportunities.

Written by Adam Richardson, creative director at the award-winning global innovation firm frog design, Innovation X outlines a proven process for translating customer insights into relevant innovations. With a simple but powerful framework, Richardson shows how to use X-Problems to harness customer insights (Immersion); open new advantages (Divergence); integrate systems of products, online experiences, and services (Convergence); and stay nimble in a fast-moving environment (Adaption).

Challenging conventional wisdom, Innovation X shows why companies must start crafting solutions before they fully understand the problem, how standard customer-focused approaches hinder innovation leadership, and that "wasteful" innovation provides greater efficiency. Featuring a wealth of case studies from such leading companies as Google, Zipcar, salesforce.com, and Hewlett-Packard, as well as detailed examples from frog design's work, Innovation X offers business leaders and managers the information and tools they need to accomplish truly effective innovation in today's disruptive climate.

Grounded in insights about rapidly changing customers, competitors, and technologies, Innovation X is the manual for leaders seeking greater clarity about the emerging challenges facing their businesses, innovation strategies that will work in dynamic markets, and tactical methods they can put to use immediately.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (February 8, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470482192
• ISBN-13: 978-0470482193
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Adam Richardson is a creative director at global innovation firm frog design, inc., where he has worked with companies such as HP, Intel, Motorola, Logitech, and Yahoo!. His background combines experience in product development, product strategy, and customer research. Richardson writes regularly on design and business, and speaks at conferences worldwide. In addition to teaching design and user research, he is a guest lecturer at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle in Paris, and at the IESE University of Navarra in Barcelona. Richardson earned his BFA in Industrial Design from the California College of the Arts, and a multi-disciplinary MA from the University of Chicago.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read for big corp R&D December 6, 2012

By John

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book to help direct and inspire corporate R&D programs and projects. The book lets you learn from a top product innovator (senior Frog design person) while also highlighting a bunch of great cases from top global firms. I have since given the book to a co-worker of mine who also liked it. Great read!

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the most structured and well written books on creating innovations in a big corp October 30, 2011

By ServantofGod

Format:Hardcover

There are many books about innovation. Most of them simply tell you to listen to the customers and let your marvericks do their jobs. Honestly they dont work at all or you wont find that many books about innovation in a book store. One major blockade, particularly for big corps, is the need to have excellent b-cases supported by detailed action plans to convince various layers of management to approve and endorse "something they had tried before but failed", not to say the effort to organize the resources. In that respect, the author had helped by providing a necessary framework for the aspired innovators to solve the X-problems (for definition, please consider the X-files) through the parallel execution of four methods (Immersion, Convergence, Divergence, Adaption). Even though you had already been exhausted by your previous innovation attempts, the author's insights on ecosystems, customer touchpoints, customer journeys, customer experience and core insights still worths it a quick read. In short, recommended!

p.s. Below please find a few favorite passages of mine for your reference.
The present should be a beta of the future we want to live in. - Fabio Sergio pg147
A way to evaluate your passion and compassion for an innovation is to think about you panic threshold....It takes discipline and nerve to wait out wait out adaption and not prematurely lock down the definition of the X-problem or what your approach to it will be. Doing so risks missing out on the real opportunity. Pg155
Plant seeds, not forests. - Brian Eno pg164
Understanding the changing business context, trends and customer needs is too important to be left to a small group of people, who will by necessity have only a constricted view. The more Jason Bournes you have out there gulping down the world, and the less you have to reply on sucking it through a straw like his government pursuers, the better. Pg185
Ed Catmull at Pixarargues, "If you want to be original, you have to accept risk, even when it's uncomfortable, and have the capability to recover when your organization takes a big risk and fails. What's the key to being able to recover? Talented people! Pg208

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish this book had existed earlier in my career! July 6, 2010

By David Sherwin

Format:Hardcover

In 250 pages, Adam Richardson from frog design concisely describes the ways in which leaders at today's companies--with the aid of designers--can use systematic approaches to architect more desirable and compelling products and services. Much of this book helps to describe the "secret sauce" that informs frog design's work, and includes case studies that help to illustrate many of the key points. Highly recommended, and something I've gone back to and looked at repeatedly to bring some of his ideas into my work.