How Predictive Innovation Works

Anything that can be made or done can be described. You can give someone directions to anywhere on the planet using the 6 directions: left, right, forward, backwards, up, and down. Similarly, there is a limited set of instructions for describing anything you can do or make. If it can be described, the ideal version can also be described. If you start from the ideal version and step backwards to what is available today, each step is an innovation. Predictive Innovation is a structured system for describing both what people want and how to make it.

Predicting What Customers Will Want

The definition of innovation is:

"Profitably satisfy unmet desires"

When you realize that satisfying unmet desires is the definition of innovation, you gain the first insight to Predictive Innovation. For success you must begin with the customers' desires. Only when you understand the customers' desires can you reliably come up with ideas to satisfy those desires.

Ideas are easy. The difficult part is finding ideas that will profitably satisfy the desires customers' most want satisfied. The big problem is understanding their desires. Desires are subjective. The first thing Predictive Innovation does is translate subjective desires into objective outcomes that can be accurately communicated and measured. Once you have objective outcomes your task is much easier.

Outcomes don't change. The outcomes needed to achieve a particular task remain the same. For example, what a person wants when listening to music has and will remain the same forever. Even as musical styles change and the possibilities expand, the core aspect of listening to music is the same. Today we have DVD and MP3 players that allow you to listen to the music you want. In the past there were tapes and records. And before that there were player pianos and music boxes. Each did the same thing, let you listen to the music you want in a place you wanted. What changes is how well those outcomes are satisfied.

The ideal product or service gives the customer...

what they want, when they want, where they want, the way they want, with or for who they want, at the price they want and with no hassle.

By taking the outcomes and expressing the ideal for each you now see the future. Predictive Innovation allows you to accurately define that ideal product or service, then using a series of special techniques shows you all the paths and every step between here and there. Predictive Innovation literally gives you a map to success.