Innovation is the lifeblood of business success. But innovation can’t just be a one-time event. To keep up with the competition, companies have to keep on coming up with new and better stuff, using the product innovation process.
Sustaining innovation focuses on incremental improvements to existing products and business models. This is different from disruptive innovation, which is all about brand-new ideas that can take over the old ones.
Even though we hear a lot about disruptive innovation, most of what companies do is sustaining innovation. It’s like the engine that keeps the company growing.
In this article, we’ll discuss 12 effective methods to keep innovation alive in product development. But before we get into that, let’s understand what sustaining innovation is all about.
The Role of Sustaining Innovation
Sustaining innovation has several key advantages:
- It reinforces your core competencies. Focusing on incremental innovation allows you to get the most out of your existing expertise.
- It aligns with customer needs. Small improvements often better match current market demands.
- It maximizes return on investment. Building on proven products requires less time and money than developing radical new offerings.
It defends against competition. Regular innovation denies rivals opportunities to gain ground.
Sustaining innovation isn’t about playing it safe. It’s about deliberately leveraging your strengths to maximize success through the new product innovation process and a well-defined product innovation strategy. This approach ensures that your organization remains agile and competitive in the ever-evolving market landscape, fostering continuous growth and customer satisfaction.
Strategies for Sustaining Innovation vs. Disruptive Innovation
Innovation is essential for business success, but it can take different forms. Here’s a comparison between sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation, with a focus on the new product innovation process.
| Aspect | Sustaining Innovation | Disruptive Innovation |
| Focus | Incremental improvements to existing products and models. | Radical, game-changing, disruptive ideas that create entirely new markets. |
| Customer Alignment | Better matches current market demands. | Often creates new markets or addresses unmet needs. |
| Time and Investment | Requires less time and money compared to disruptive innovation. | Often requires significant investment and a longer timeframe. |
| A Competitive Defense | Denies Rival’s opportunities to gain ground. | May displace established players in the market. |
| Approach to Risk | Emphasizes risk management and experimentation. | Embraces calculated risk and disruptive potential. |
| Innovation Culture | Fosters a culture of continuous improvement. | Encourages a culture of exploration and experimentation. |
| Employee Training | Equips employees with skills for ongoing incremental innovation. | nurturing creative thinking and adaptability. |
| Customer Involvement | Engages customer feedback and incremental improvements. | May involve customers in co-creating disruptive solutions. |
| Resources and Budget | Requires moderate resources and budget allocation. | Often demands significant resources and investment. |
| Market Impact | Gradual market impact and customer adoption. | This can lead to rapid market transformation. |
Both sustaining and disruptive innovation have their place in the business world, and companies often need a balanced approach to stay competitive and relevant.
Now that you know why sustaining innovation is so important, let’s jump into 6 awesome ways to keep it going and keep making progress.
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Continuous Market Research
Ongoing market research provides the crucial insights needed to keep product development aligned with shifting customer needs and evolving industry trends. Tactics like customer surveys, focus groups, buyer persona development, competitive analysis, and industry monitoring give a multifaceted perspective.
Take a look at the below chart:
The data shows a high percentage of innovative companies using surveys, focus groups, and competitive analysis. And those that do see substantial revenue gains compared to those that do not invest in continuous research.
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Customer Co-creation
Customer co-creation means involving customers directly in creating new product ideas. It gathers valuable insights from real-world experiences using methods like focus groups, customer advisory boards, workshops, beta testing, and experience prototyping.
Customers work together with the team to brainstorm ideas, give feedback on prototypes, and highlight pain points. This collaboration ensures that innovations meet customers’ actual needs from the beginning, instead of relying on guesswork.
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Agile Development Processes
Agile innovation methods like Scrum and Lean Startup are all about fast iteration and flexibility, unlike more rigid step-by-step development approaches. The benefits of this sped-up process are huge, including
- Faster time-to-market
- Increased ability to adapt to changing requirements
- Better quality through rapid feedback loops
- Lowered risk thanks to incremental deliverables
- Improved team productivity
Agile processes promote de-risked experimentation, constant customer validation, and the skill to flexibly adapt—all must-have ingredients for sustaining innovation over the long haul.
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Innovation Risk Management
Carefully incorporating risk management allows organizations to sustain innovation through ongoing, de-risked experimentation. Tactics like rapid prototyping, small market tests, failure analysis, balanced project portfolios, and quick termination of unsuccessful ventures expose innovations to market realities.
Controlled tests reveal flaws early when they can still be addressed. If efforts demonstrate unviability, they are ended quickly, with lessons learned. Balanced portfolios limit downside risk exposure. Together these techniques enable continual innovation.
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Establishing an Innovation Culture
Cultural transformations that encourage creativity, collaboration, and reasonable risk-taking are vital for empowering and sustaining innovation. Innovation training equips staff with the mindsets and toolkits needed to ideate and experiment daily. Recognition programs provide motivation and reinforcement.
Workspaces designed for spontaneity spark imaginative collisions. Allowing reasonable failure breeds an entrepreneurial spirit. Together these cultural ingredients drive higher levels of grassroots, employee-led innovation.
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Open Innovation Networks
Looking beyond organizational walls expands sustaining innovation capabilities. Tapping developer communities brings complementary offerings that extend product value. Startup programs provide early access to emerging technologies. University relationships fuse academic insights with real-world applications.
User crowdsourcing platforms offer diverse consumer perspectives. Together these open network strategies provide fresh perspectives, new opportunities, and wider talent pools crucial for sustaining innovation over the long term.
Real-World Examples
Let’s look at how top companies use sustaining innovation strategies:
Apple
Apple sustains innovation by quickly improving its products. For example, they regularly enhance the iPhone with better parts and software. This lets Apple get the most out of innovations by releasing S iPhones between major updates.
Toyota
The Japanese car company focuses on small ongoing improvements. Employee suggestion programs and quality circles identify many little improvements that add up.
3M
3M sets aside up to 30% of R&D money for employees to direct innovation projects. This internal entrepreneur model has created big hits like Post-It Notes.
While sustaining innovation is key, it also comes with challenges…
Common Challenges and Pitfalls
Organizations face hurdles in sustaining innovation, such as
- Resource constraints: Ongoing innovation investments strain budgets and staff bandwidth.
- Short-term mindsets: Pressure to meet quarterly goals undermines long-term innovation efforts.
- Legacy processes and systems: Outdated ways of working hinder the agility and collaboration needed to sustain innovation.
- Risk avoidance: Fear of failure suppresses experimentation required for ongoing innovation.
65% of companies admit struggles balancing sustaining and disruptive innovation. However, organizations can overcome hurdles through focus and disciplined execution of sustaining innovation strategies.
The Future of Sustaining Innovation
Several emerging trends will shape-sustaining innovation:
- AI and machine learning: Makes it much faster and easier for companies to understand their data and use it to make automatic improvements.
- AR/VR: Tools that will make it simpler to see and improve design ideas quickly.
- Additive manufacturing: This method will make it quick and cheap to create and customize prototypes.
- 5G connectivity: Technology that will help smart products work better by allowing them to monitor and respond in real time.
These technologies will provide new capabilities to accelerate and enhance sustaining innovation. However, companies still need to master the time-tested strategies and disciplines.
Key Takeaways
- Sustaining innovation through ongoing product improvements drives business success.
- Strategies for sustaining innovation include market research, collaboration, co-creation, agile development, risk management, and IP protection.
- Leading innovators effectively use these strategies to maximize returns on innovation investments.
- Emerging technologies will expand capabilities, but executing sustaining innovation fundamentals remains imperative.
- The future is about companies making innovation a regular part of their operations, not just a sporadic effort.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What are some early signs that innovation is slowing down?
Watch for things like lower customer satisfaction, sales leveling off, products taking longer to develop, and more customers switching to competitors. Checking on these regularly can alert you to potential problems with ongoing innovation.
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Which teams should work together on sustaining innovation?
At the very least, product development, R&D, marketing, sales, and customer service teams should collaborate. Also consider bringing in partners, suppliers, and lead users.
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How can we balance small innovations with big breakthroughs?
Use a balanced approach – improve existing products bit-by-bit while also having an R&D focus on developing major innovations. Let the small innovations help fund the pursuit of the big ideas.
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What is a good budget percentage for innovation each year?
Experts suggest dedicating 1% to 4% of revenue to innovation, adjusted based on your strategies and industry. Invest more during times of fast change.
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How can we implement agile product development?
Start small – pilot agile with one product team, show results, then expand to other teams. Provide extensive training and coaching to support the transition.
- What are quick ways to improve innovation?
Easy starting points are launching an online customer community, having a monthly innovation meeting with key departments, and setting aside time for self-directed projects.
