Innovation and Change

Question 1

What is technology?

Answer 1

Consists of knowledge, tools, and techniques used to transform inputs (raw materials) into outputs (products and services).

Question 2

What is organizational innovation?

Answer 2

The successful implementation of creative ideas.

Question 3

What are technology cycles?

Answer 3

The birth of new technology that occurs when old technology reaches its limit and dies.

Question 4

What are innovation streams?

Answer 4

Patterns of innovation, that, over time create substantial competitive advantage.

Question 5

What is technological discontinuity?

Answer 5

A scientific advantage or a unique combination of existing technologies creates a significant breakthrough in performance or function.

Question 6

What is discontinuous change?

Answer 6

Changes characterized by technological substitution and design competition.

Question 7

What happens during discontinuous change?

Answer 7

Companies must find a way to anticipate and survive the technological changes that can suddenly transform industry leaders into losers and losers into industry leaders.
Called an experiential approach to innovation.

Question 8

What is technological substitution?

Answer 8

What occurs when customers purchase new technologies to replace older technologies.

Question 9

What is design competition?

Answer 9

Old technology and several different new technologies compete to establish a new technological standard or dominant design.

Question 10

What is technological lockout?

Answer 10

The inability of a company to competitively sell its products because it relies on old technology or nondominant design.

Question 11

What is incremental change?

Answer 11

A phase in which companies innovate by lowering the cost and improving the functioning and performance of the dominant design.

Question 12

What happens after a new dominant design emerges?

Answer 12

Companies must manage the very different process of incremental improvement and innovation.
Called compressed approach to innovation.

Question 13

What is a red ocean strategy?

Answer 13

1. Compete in the existing market space.
2. Beat the competition.
3. Exploit existing demand.
4. Make the value-cost trade-off.
5. Align strategy choice of differentiation or low cost.

Question 14

What is a blue ocean strategy?

Answer 14

1. Create uncontested market space.
2. Make the competition irrelevant.
3. Create and capture new demand.
4. Break the value-cost trade-off.
5. Simultaneous pursuit strategy of differentiation and low cost.

Question 15

Do innovators or pioneers do better in the long run?

Answer 15

Imitators.

Question 16

What does supervisory encouragement look like?

Answer 16

1. Actively support development teams’ work and ideas.
2. Clear goals.
3. Open interaction with subordinates.

Question 17

What is flow?

Answer 17

The psychological state of effortlessness, in which you become completely absorbed in what you’re doing and time seems to rapidly pass.

Question 18

What is a startup?

Answer 18

A human institution designed to create a new service or product under the conditions of extreme uncertainty.

Question 19

What is the methodology behind a startup?

Answer 19

1. Entrepreneurs are everywhere.
2. Entrepreneurship in management.
3. Validated learning.
4. Innovation accounting.
5. Build-Measure-Learn.

Question 20

What is the startup loop of despair

Answer 20

Idea –> Build –> Brand –> Customer–> Idea –> Customer –> Build –> Brand.

Question 21

What are agile principles in the iterative process?

Answer 21

1. Focusing on customer values.
2. Iterative and incremental delivery.
3. Experimentation and adaptation.
4. Continuous improvement.
5. Self-organization.

Question 22

What are the advantages of the iterative process?

Answer 22

1. Early detection of defects and problems.
2. Continuous integration, validation, and verification of the evolving product.
3. Frequent demonstration of progress to increase the likelihood that the end product will satisfy customer needs.

Question 23

What is a minimal viable product (MVP)?

Answer 23

1. Core features that allow the product (or some variation of it) to launch.
2. A version of the product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

Question 24

What happens during the build portion of the feedback loop?

Answer 24

Turn ideas into products.
1. MVP.
2. Concierge: start with one customer.
3. Simulate with people.

Question 25

What happens during the measure portion of the feedback loop?

Answer 25

See how customers respond.
1. Go and see for yourself.
2. Split-test to find cause and effect.
3. Experiments to move numbers closer to plan.

Question 26

What happens during the learn portion of the feedback loop?

Answer 26

Pivot or persevere.
1. The five whys: Find and fix root causes.
2. Which activities create value? Which are waste?
3. Pivots.

Question 27

What are pivots?

Answer 27

1. Zoom out.
2. Zoom in.
3. Customer need.
4. Customer segment.
5. Business architecture.
6. Platform.
7. Channel.
8. Value capture.
9. Engines of growth.