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Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation
Generating and executing great ideas is the key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing world. It seems so basic. Why is it so hard to actually get right? The real problem is that we're teaching people to ask the wrong questions -or none at all. There has to be a better way.
In Beyond the Obvious , McKinney helps the reader to dig deeper and get back to asking the right questions-the ones all organizations must ask to survive. Full of real-world examples, this book will change the way you operate, innovate, and create, and it all begins with battle-tested questions Phil has gathered on note cards throughout his career and shared for the first time.
These questions will re-frame the way you see your products, your customers, and the way the two interact. Whether you're a company of thousands or a lean start-up, Beyond the Obvious will give you the skills and easy-to-follow plan you need to make both the revolutionary changes and nuanced tweaks required for success.
In Beyond the Obvious , McKinney helps the reader to dig deeper and get back to asking the right questions-the ones all organizations must ask to survive. Full of real-world examples, this book will change the way you operate, innovate, and create, and it all begins with battle-tested questions Phil has gathered on note cards throughout his career and shared for the first time.
These questions will re-frame the way you see your products, your customers, and the way the two interact. Whether you're a company of thousands or a lean start-up, Beyond the Obvious will give you the skills and easy-to-follow plan you need to make both the revolutionary changes and nuanced tweaks required for success.
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
24 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
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April 18, 2021
Takeaways:
Markets change so fast that companies must constantly innovate to stay competitive.
Firms need to move beyond conventional ideas and traditional assumptions.
Anyone can and should develop great new ideas; you can learn how to be innovative.
Firms and individuals can follow a practical step-by-step system to increase innovation.
Ask “Killer Questions” to reveal information that you might otherwise overlook.
Put your best ideas to work by using “FIRE”: “Focus, Ideation, Ranking and Execution.”
To move beyond conventional assumptions, adopt the viewpoint of a skeptical outsider.
People who destroy new ideas are “corporate antibodies.”
Learn to convince naysayers to support your innovative concepts.
Creative individuals who consistently develop new ideas are always in demand.
Summaries:
Question Everything
To innovate, think about the world in new ways. Ask “Killer Questions” to uncover fresh information and insights that will enable your company to develop great ideas that others miss. Killer Questions let you take an unbiased outsider’s perspective by moving beyond your comfort zone and questioning everything about your company and its methods. Ask your customers and your prospects these three groups of Killer Questions, the “Who, What and How”:
1. Who Are Your Customers and Prospects?
Do not assume that you know or can define your customers – who they are, what matters to them and what they want from the marketplace. Your clients’ motivations may surprise you. Effective marketers learn everything they can about potential and actual customers, including what criteria they apply to purchases. As you “explore, observe [and] ask,” investigate your standing with three different groups – your customers, potential customers and people who should buy your product but don’t – by asking these questions:
“Who is using my product in a way I never intended – and how?” – You and your colleagues make tacit assumptions about why people buy your products and how they use them. But some customers may employ your products for applications you never considered. Discover what these are to find new opportunities to modify existing products, create new products or expand your markets.
“Who complains about my product?” – Aggrieved customers take their gripes to social media sites, where you may learn more about your customer interface than any subordinate will tell you. Engage online with your complainers. Pay attention to their recommendations to improve your product or service and to regain customer goodwill.
“Who does not understand how to use my product because it has too few or too many features and functions?” – Fewer features and less complexity can make certain products more attractive, not less. Ask your customers which 20% of your product’s features they use 80% of the time.
“What customer segment will emerge in five years that doesn’t exist today?” – This question applies to the future buyers of your product. How are your customers and the marketplace changing? Ask your existing clients to describe their future needs in all arenas, not only the ones you currently serve.
“What will future customers’ buying criteria be?” – Purchasers of mobile phones once wanted their communication devices to be small and slim. Today, mobile phone users want large screens, which means larger mobile phones. Always be conscious of the cyclical nature of products and consumer preferences. Changes in lifestyles often indicate the end or beginning of product cycles.
2. What Do You Sell?
What are the core values of your products or services? Why do people buy what you sell? What do they like most about your commercial offerings? How will your products or services evolve? To be successful in the future, pose these questions:
“Could I create a standardized offering of a custom product?” – Think about which of your customized products you could inexpensively convert to mass-market offerings. Or figure out how to lower the price of your bespoke product to expand your marketplace.
“How can I take advantage of emerging trends and fads?” – Become an expert at uncovering “weak signals” emanating from obscure corners of your client base. These are needs that customers do not express directly, but that emerge in their buying trends or start to dominate the opinions expressed in blogs or lesser-known media outlets.
“How can I eliminate customer hassles and create unique benefits for customers?” – If your customers anticipate an unpleasant interchange – such as a long wait while checking baggage for a flight – do whatever you can to reduce the downside of their experience. Even a tiny improvement will reap increased client loyalty.
“What features of my product create unanticipated passion?” – When your customers bond emotionally with your product, it becomes a “must-have.” Discover what your consumers love, and incorporate that element into other products. Clients will pay a premium for must-haves.
3. How Does Your Firm Operate?
Marketing professionals don’t have much trouble asking the who and what questions, but these less-obvious how questions are equally critical. They uncover the value you give your customers:
“What industries are analogous to ours, and what can we learn from them?” – All businesses strive to deliver products that buyers prefer over the competition’s version. Examine how firms in other industries solve this problem and learn from them.
“What would happen if I realigned my industry relationships?” – Be prepared for any eventuality. After Japan’s tsunami, Shin-Etsu, the country’s dominant silicon wafer manufacturer, could not reopen its plant for five months. What backup plans do you have if something happens to your suppliers and supply lines?
“What are the criteria to select research and development projects?” – Never base your innovation strategy entirely on return on investment. Develop one other fulcrum criterion – another pivotal qualifier – projects must meet before they can move forward.
“Where do we perform product research and development?” – Balance your in-house and outsourced R&D. Outsourcing brings new attitudes, skill and knowledge.
“In what order do you do the R&D process?” – Modern consumers regard design as important, not as an add-on. They want it to merge seamlessly with functionality. Consider revamping how you plan, design and develop your products.
Innovation Killers
The innovation killers in your firm – those insidious “corporate antibodies” – respond to every new idea with a resounding no. Often these naysayers are older employees or have held one position for so long that they fear any change, and they see all innovation as a threat. Their typical objections, which always support the status quo, include, “We tried that before,” “Our customers like it this way” or “We can’t afford that.” Innovators must develop the skills to change those no’s to yes’s. Corporate antibodies’ reactions often fall into four categories:
“The ego response” – Typical objection: “I already thought of that a long time ago.” This is the “been there, done that” brush-off you’ll hear when your new plan challenges the position and self-image of corporate antibodies who consider themselves the most important idea people in your firm. Demonstrate that your new idea neither threatens their position nor attempts to supplant them. With reassurance, they’ll go along.
“The fatigued response” – Typical objection: “You’ll never get approval.” Burned-out corporate antibodies have tried and failed to get new plans off the ground so often that they have just surrendered. To shift them out of their defeatist posture, present your solution as a progression that the organization can handle in incremental steps.
“The no-risk response” – Typical objection: “Insufficient return on investment.” Corporate antibodies believe their conservatism protects the firm from impractical notions. To win their support, demonstrate that your initiative increases company profits. No-risk responders know that inaction rarely draws negative attention. Thus, they always want things to remain as they are. To counter, show that your idea poses little risk.
“The comfort response” – Typical objection: “Don’t rock the boat.” Try to show the naysayers that success takes many forms and objectives change over time. “Move your goal posts or persuade them to move theirs.”
“The FIRE Method”
To maximize what you learn from Killer Questions, analyze the answers using the FIRE Method: “Focus, Ideation, Ranking and Execution.” This system will help you find and select the best ideas. Focus involves identifying the areas where you want to innovate: your consumers, services, prices, distribution, marketing, R&D, brand identity, and so on. Ideation calls for deploying the Killer Questions to discover great ideas. Ranking forces you to choose which new ideas hold the most creative promise. Ask five questions about each idea and grade the responses. Pursue the concepts with the best cumulative scores. The questions are:
How does this new idea improve your customer’s experience?
How does the idea alter your place in the market relative to your competition?
How does it affect the “financial structure of the industry?”
How can your company contribute to the world?
Can this new idea produce the profits that you need?
Generating and executing great ideas is the key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing world.
Execution makes idea generation meaningful. Use the “gated funding model” to move your proposed solution into the marketplace. Subject new ideas to sequential standards or progressive gates, to qualify for resources and funding. The four gates are:
“Market validation” – Confirm that your proposal satisfies a market need.
“Customer validation” – Test the idea by using mock-ups with actual customers.
“Limited launch” – Sell the actual product in a selected market.
“Global launch” – Widely market and distribute your new product.
“Innovation Workshops”
To help your company benefit from the productivity of as many creative minds as possible, set up an innovation workshop to come up with new ideas. Follow six rules:
“Set a focus” – Multiple outlooks need one goal to be productive.
“Assign two Killer Questions as homework” – Provide questions two weeks before the workshop. Make sure everyone knows they must conduct fieldwork for answers.
“Encourage investigation” – Participants must query current customers in depth.
“Don’t filter” – Urge participants to be alert to their usual assumptions.
“Set a schedule for generating ideas and stick to it” – Work with a time deadline and “stay on point.”
“Ranking isn’t a dirty word” – The most effective way to identify your best new ideas is to evaluate your concepts by comparing them to each other.
The supercharged pace of change and innovation means that what was true yesterday is already on its way to being outmoded today.
The point of all this examination is to pose new questions and to act on the fresh information you uncover. Like all invitations to change, these questions can be scary. But the firms that venture bravely in new directions will set the bar for everyone else and they’ll open new markets first.
As millions of Chinese and Indian young people earn college degrees, they emerge into the workplace with the same knowledge that’s available to educated professionals in industrialized nations. Alarmingly for such professionals, these hardworking members of emerging economies will sell their expertise more cheaply than employees in industrialized economics do. Information alone no longer possesses its former cachet; today, innovation is a prized currency. And those who think and function in new ways will be the most productive and sought-after innovators. “When it comes to innovation and ideas, nobody has ownership or control over you. Nobody can tell you that ‘coming up with new ideas isn’t part of your job description’.”
Ideas without execution are a hobby.
Position your career with the understanding that, amid the marketplace’s vast demand for innovation, just having knowledge and skills is no longer enough. To help your firm close its “innovation gap,” you must ask inventive questions and offer new ideas. That will make you an “innovation evangelist” and a crucial employee in the “creative economy.”
Markets change so fast that companies must constantly innovate to stay competitive.
Firms need to move beyond conventional ideas and traditional assumptions.
Anyone can and should develop great new ideas; you can learn how to be innovative.
Firms and individuals can follow a practical step-by-step system to increase innovation.
Ask “Killer Questions” to reveal information that you might otherwise overlook.
Put your best ideas to work by using “FIRE”: “Focus, Ideation, Ranking and Execution.”
To move beyond conventional assumptions, adopt the viewpoint of a skeptical outsider.
People who destroy new ideas are “corporate antibodies.”
Learn to convince naysayers to support your innovative concepts.
Creative individuals who consistently develop new ideas are always in demand.
Summaries:
Question Everything
To innovate, think about the world in new ways. Ask “Killer Questions” to uncover fresh information and insights that will enable your company to develop great ideas that others miss. Killer Questions let you take an unbiased outsider’s perspective by moving beyond your comfort zone and questioning everything about your company and its methods. Ask your customers and your prospects these three groups of Killer Questions, the “Who, What and How”:
1. Who Are Your Customers and Prospects?
Do not assume that you know or can define your customers – who they are, what matters to them and what they want from the marketplace. Your clients’ motivations may surprise you. Effective marketers learn everything they can about potential and actual customers, including what criteria they apply to purchases. As you “explore, observe [and] ask,” investigate your standing with three different groups – your customers, potential customers and people who should buy your product but don’t – by asking these questions:
“Who is using my product in a way I never intended – and how?” – You and your colleagues make tacit assumptions about why people buy your products and how they use them. But some customers may employ your products for applications you never considered. Discover what these are to find new opportunities to modify existing products, create new products or expand your markets.
“Who complains about my product?” – Aggrieved customers take their gripes to social media sites, where you may learn more about your customer interface than any subordinate will tell you. Engage online with your complainers. Pay attention to their recommendations to improve your product or service and to regain customer goodwill.
“Who does not understand how to use my product because it has too few or too many features and functions?” – Fewer features and less complexity can make certain products more attractive, not less. Ask your customers which 20% of your product’s features they use 80% of the time.
“What customer segment will emerge in five years that doesn’t exist today?” – This question applies to the future buyers of your product. How are your customers and the marketplace changing? Ask your existing clients to describe their future needs in all arenas, not only the ones you currently serve.
“What will future customers’ buying criteria be?” – Purchasers of mobile phones once wanted their communication devices to be small and slim. Today, mobile phone users want large screens, which means larger mobile phones. Always be conscious of the cyclical nature of products and consumer preferences. Changes in lifestyles often indicate the end or beginning of product cycles.
2. What Do You Sell?
What are the core values of your products or services? Why do people buy what you sell? What do they like most about your commercial offerings? How will your products or services evolve? To be successful in the future, pose these questions:
“Could I create a standardized offering of a custom product?” – Think about which of your customized products you could inexpensively convert to mass-market offerings. Or figure out how to lower the price of your bespoke product to expand your marketplace.
“How can I take advantage of emerging trends and fads?” – Become an expert at uncovering “weak signals” emanating from obscure corners of your client base. These are needs that customers do not express directly, but that emerge in their buying trends or start to dominate the opinions expressed in blogs or lesser-known media outlets.
“How can I eliminate customer hassles and create unique benefits for customers?” – If your customers anticipate an unpleasant interchange – such as a long wait while checking baggage for a flight – do whatever you can to reduce the downside of their experience. Even a tiny improvement will reap increased client loyalty.
“What features of my product create unanticipated passion?” – When your customers bond emotionally with your product, it becomes a “must-have.” Discover what your consumers love, and incorporate that element into other products. Clients will pay a premium for must-haves.
3. How Does Your Firm Operate?
Marketing professionals don’t have much trouble asking the who and what questions, but these less-obvious how questions are equally critical. They uncover the value you give your customers:
“What industries are analogous to ours, and what can we learn from them?” – All businesses strive to deliver products that buyers prefer over the competition’s version. Examine how firms in other industries solve this problem and learn from them.
“What would happen if I realigned my industry relationships?” – Be prepared for any eventuality. After Japan’s tsunami, Shin-Etsu, the country’s dominant silicon wafer manufacturer, could not reopen its plant for five months. What backup plans do you have if something happens to your suppliers and supply lines?
“What are the criteria to select research and development projects?” – Never base your innovation strategy entirely on return on investment. Develop one other fulcrum criterion – another pivotal qualifier – projects must meet before they can move forward.
“Where do we perform product research and development?” – Balance your in-house and outsourced R&D. Outsourcing brings new attitudes, skill and knowledge.
“In what order do you do the R&D process?” – Modern consumers regard design as important, not as an add-on. They want it to merge seamlessly with functionality. Consider revamping how you plan, design and develop your products.
Innovation Killers
The innovation killers in your firm – those insidious “corporate antibodies” – respond to every new idea with a resounding no. Often these naysayers are older employees or have held one position for so long that they fear any change, and they see all innovation as a threat. Their typical objections, which always support the status quo, include, “We tried that before,” “Our customers like it this way” or “We can’t afford that.” Innovators must develop the skills to change those no’s to yes’s. Corporate antibodies’ reactions often fall into four categories:
“The ego response” – Typical objection: “I already thought of that a long time ago.” This is the “been there, done that” brush-off you’ll hear when your new plan challenges the position and self-image of corporate antibodies who consider themselves the most important idea people in your firm. Demonstrate that your new idea neither threatens their position nor attempts to supplant them. With reassurance, they’ll go along.
“The fatigued response” – Typical objection: “You’ll never get approval.” Burned-out corporate antibodies have tried and failed to get new plans off the ground so often that they have just surrendered. To shift them out of their defeatist posture, present your solution as a progression that the organization can handle in incremental steps.
“The no-risk response” – Typical objection: “Insufficient return on investment.” Corporate antibodies believe their conservatism protects the firm from impractical notions. To win their support, demonstrate that your initiative increases company profits. No-risk responders know that inaction rarely draws negative attention. Thus, they always want things to remain as they are. To counter, show that your idea poses little risk.
“The comfort response” – Typical objection: “Don’t rock the boat.” Try to show the naysayers that success takes many forms and objectives change over time. “Move your goal posts or persuade them to move theirs.”
“The FIRE Method”
To maximize what you learn from Killer Questions, analyze the answers using the FIRE Method: “Focus, Ideation, Ranking and Execution.” This system will help you find and select the best ideas. Focus involves identifying the areas where you want to innovate: your consumers, services, prices, distribution, marketing, R&D, brand identity, and so on. Ideation calls for deploying the Killer Questions to discover great ideas. Ranking forces you to choose which new ideas hold the most creative promise. Ask five questions about each idea and grade the responses. Pursue the concepts with the best cumulative scores. The questions are:
How does this new idea improve your customer’s experience?
How does the idea alter your place in the market relative to your competition?
How does it affect the “financial structure of the industry?”
How can your company contribute to the world?
Can this new idea produce the profits that you need?
Generating and executing great ideas is the key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing world.
Execution makes idea generation meaningful. Use the “gated funding model” to move your proposed solution into the marketplace. Subject new ideas to sequential standards or progressive gates, to qualify for resources and funding. The four gates are:
“Market validation” – Confirm that your proposal satisfies a market need.
“Customer validation” – Test the idea by using mock-ups with actual customers.
“Limited launch” – Sell the actual product in a selected market.
“Global launch” – Widely market and distribute your new product.
“Innovation Workshops”
To help your company benefit from the productivity of as many creative minds as possible, set up an innovation workshop to come up with new ideas. Follow six rules:
“Set a focus” – Multiple outlooks need one goal to be productive.
“Assign two Killer Questions as homework” – Provide questions two weeks before the workshop. Make sure everyone knows they must conduct fieldwork for answers.
“Encourage investigation” – Participants must query current customers in depth.
“Don’t filter” – Urge participants to be alert to their usual assumptions.
“Set a schedule for generating ideas and stick to it” – Work with a time deadline and “stay on point.”
“Ranking isn’t a dirty word” – The most effective way to identify your best new ideas is to evaluate your concepts by comparing them to each other.
The supercharged pace of change and innovation means that what was true yesterday is already on its way to being outmoded today.
The point of all this examination is to pose new questions and to act on the fresh information you uncover. Like all invitations to change, these questions can be scary. But the firms that venture bravely in new directions will set the bar for everyone else and they’ll open new markets first.
As millions of Chinese and Indian young people earn college degrees, they emerge into the workplace with the same knowledge that’s available to educated professionals in industrialized nations. Alarmingly for such professionals, these hardworking members of emerging economies will sell their expertise more cheaply than employees in industrialized economics do. Information alone no longer possesses its former cachet; today, innovation is a prized currency. And those who think and function in new ways will be the most productive and sought-after innovators. “When it comes to innovation and ideas, nobody has ownership or control over you. Nobody can tell you that ‘coming up with new ideas isn’t part of your job description’.”
Ideas without execution are a hobby.
Position your career with the understanding that, amid the marketplace’s vast demand for innovation, just having knowledge and skills is no longer enough. To help your firm close its “innovation gap,” you must ask inventive questions and offer new ideas. That will make you an “innovation evangelist” and a crucial employee in the “creative economy.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2022
(3.5) I desperately want to be an idea person, so I keep reading books on how to generate ideas & the system in this one is super helpful! It helped me see past the myth that idea people are born into ideas and, also, that innovation, like anything, is a skill. I can see myself using this set of questions & system in all parts of my life. Also, the end - usually a throwaway chapter in these books - was kind of inspiring in a damn-the-man kind of way.
Parts felt a little...old-fashioned? Gendered?...but it's also 10 years old and I suspect the author is likely more with it these days. Regardless, compelling book. I always love a system.
Parts felt a little...old-fashioned? Gendered?...but it's also 10 years old and I suspect the author is likely more with it these days. Regardless, compelling book. I always love a system.
October 10, 2015
Definitely a good read but not as exciting as meeting Phil McKinney in person or listening to his podcasts.
August 28, 2021
Really good and practical way to understand the process of innovation and how to put it into practice. The whole book is set up to give you the tools to question the way things are done in your own business.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
February 11, 2020
Great concept on how to qualify an idea, however it became unnecessarily repetitive after chapter 5.
April 29, 2020
This was a decent book with some promising methodologies to innovate with groups. Unfortunately, an audiobook was not the right format to consume it. I would recommend the printed version.
February 9, 2024
Terrible. So terrible.
August 16, 2012
My sense is that the author is a nice, intelligent person. I didn't enjoy his writing style and the book did not hold my interest. I skimmed through it hoping to find more substance in it. I wanted to like it and learn something useful but I did not. As a homeschooling parent and former teacher, I was encouraged when I reached the education system strategy example. Maybe there was something in this book interesting, worthwhile and innovative after all. But it was none of those things and less.
August 21, 2015
Hmmm, I thought it was going to be great. I have to admit I was disappointed, somehow it didn't have the style and the teachings I was looking for. It started promising, noted a few good things, but I got really bored with the method. It may very well be a good thing but it didn't interest me enough to keep me reading with passion and I thought its points are not much more than obvious. In my view a significant contradiction to its attractive title.
July 20, 2013
I liked this book and probably would have given it more than 3 stars were it not for the fact that I have listened to so many podcasts from Phil Mckinney that hearing his words of wisdom from someone else didn't resonate as well with me.
I also suspect that as I make use of the tools mentioned in the book I might find myself having to upgrade it.
Definitely worth reading.
I also suspect that as I make use of the tools mentioned in the book I might find myself having to upgrade it.
Definitely worth reading.
October 5, 2015
While the book raised some good points and offered some decent questions, it lacked passion or humor. This book could have easily been converted into a long magazine article. The book has a lot of empty filler and dry writing. Save yourself the read and just think outside the box.
June 25, 2012
From the guru of innovation. Anyone interested in innovation should never ever miss this book.
July 14, 2012
Not bad. Kinda slow, overly conversational and fails to deliver anything seriously interesting in the end. Some good point in there though.
January 24, 2013
Excellent read.
June 29, 2013
Great book on innovation. Author is former chief innovation officer at Hewlett Packard, now CEO of CableLabs. Excellent questions and guidelines.
Read
December 23, 2015Great Innovation manifesto.
December 30, 2012
The best book ever written on innovation and how to ask the right questions
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews