The Innovator's Hypothesis How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More Than Good Ideas

What is the best way for a company to innovate? That's exactly the wrong question.The better question: How can organizations get the maximum possible value from their innovationinvestments? Advice recommending "innovation vacations" and the luxury of failure may bewonderful for organizations with time to spend and money to waste. But this book addresses theinnovation priorities of companies that live in the real world of limits. They want fast, frugal,and high impact innovations. They don't just seek superior innovation, they want superiorinnovators. In The Innovator's Hypothesis, innovation expertMichael Schrage advocates a cultural and strategic shift: small teams, collaboratively--andcompetitively -- crafting business experiments that make top management sit up and take notice.Creativity within constraints -- clear deadlines and clear deliverables -- is what seriousinnovation cultures do. Schrage introduces the 5X5 framework: giving diverse teams of five people upto five days to come up with portfolios of five business experiments costing no more than $5,000each and taking no longer than five weeks to run. The book describes multiple portfolios of 5X5experiments drawn from Schrage's advisory work and innovation workshops worldwide. These includefinancial service approaches for improving customer service and addressing security challenges; apharmaceutical company's hypotheses for boosting regulatory compliance; and a diaper divisions'efforts to give babies and parents alike better "diapering experiences" withglow-in-the-dark adhesives, diagnostic capability, and bundled wipes. Schrage's5X5 is enterprise innovation gone viral: Successful 5X5s make people more effective innovators, andmore effective innovators mean more effective innovations.