The 4 Innovation Lies

…and what to do about them…

From the HBR blog:

Combating Four Innovation Lies

“Innovators have to deal with particularly insidious lies — things that people say that they believe are true, but actually aren’t.

Lie #1: Target customer, “Of course I’ll buy that.”

Lie #2: Product developer, “We’ll be ready to ship in six months.”

Lie #3: Salesperson, “Of course I can sell that.”

Lie #4: Senior executives, “We’re open to anything!””

In my experience these are not actually lies, exactly. People just generally have great difficulty imagining changed behaviours. The honest ones ask, “Why would I want that?” or “Why would I want to do that?” The innovators need to know the answer.

Stephen