On Innovation: Learning to Observe

One of the first things that successful innovators learn as a skill is ‘observation’. Learning to observe what? Problems, challenges, frustrations etc., that potential customers face on a daily basis. Learning to observe these opens up plethora of opportunities for innovations.

If we ask people what they want, they may never know. But if you engage with them in conversation about what bothers them or what is it that they want to achieve – it will open up unseen and undiscovered needs and wants.

All such opportunities are potential centres for ideation. When we ideate around opportunities we create solutions that are useful for the market. These innovations are potential business ideas. The entrepreneur’s search for an appropriate business model should happen after this. Else innovation could remain as mere fantasies and hopes.

We need more successful entrepreneurs. For this we need successful innovations. For this we need market centric solutions. For this we need to know what the market wants. For this we need to observe more.

So if you want to become more innovative..observe more!