Note: This article is written from the perspective of technology development and leading R&D teams.

Developing technology is a relatively simple task when compared to the challenge of getting it diffused and adopted throughout the intended ecosystem. Although there are others, understanding customer needs, wants and overall psychology is one of the big hurdles that has to be overcome for success. This journey starts at home with your Customer Support team. Yet, there tends to be a gap between R&D and Customer Support teams during the innovation process. Here are my experiences on where the gaps can occur and strategies that worked for me for closing (or, when needed, widening) them.

Prioritize Customer Support correctly

On the road to your product release, you may be tempted to prioritize Customer Support behind everything else. After all, what could be more important than schedule, cost, functionality, … Believe me, it will happen, I have been there. And everyone in the program team will agree to that prioritization…. However, for new products and innovations, it is the wrong decision. Innovation is about change. Your Customer Support team is there to help your customers manage that change effectively. By prioritizing Customer Support low, you are under valuing the role that they play in supporting and hand holding the users of your products.

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I have been blogging since October of 2006. Below are my top 10 articles since the start of this blog. What do you think? What else should I write about?

1. Strategy 101: Revisiting low-cost leadership with Dell
2. How to identify forces impacting your innovation
3. Metrics gone bad and steps to recovery
4. Good, bad and ugly: Organizational silos
5. Best practices: SWOT analysis revisited
6. Strategy 101: What is your core competency?
7. Effective strategies for surviving culture tax
8. Create value at every touch point
9. Strategy 101: Characteristics of disruptive technologies — Wii has bad graphics!
10. Intrapreneurs: Navigate the corporate maze for innovation

I am behind my reading….. However, these two articles from the Innovation Playground got my attention while I was quickly browsing thru the Google Reader.

The Six Most Common Approaches To Innovation. Tell Me Which One Works For Best For You?

Idris Mootee highlights the 6 most common approaches to innovation. As I think about my past experiences, even within the same organization, I utilized different innovation approaches based on the changing problems and context. And, I would agree that ‘Throw-Plenty-Of-Ideas-Around‘ is my least favorite method. In some cases, combining one or more of these approaches could further focus your innovation process, such as refining the killer idea by prioritizing problems.

• Find-New-Ideas-To-Power-Up-Growth-Strategy
• Find-Customer Needs-First 
• Find-A-Killer-Idea-First
• Throw-Plenty-Of-Ideas-Around
• Define-The-Problem-First
• Hide-In-The-Dark

“Sustainability” Has More Than It Means. There Are No “Sustainability” Without “Social Innovation”. Many Of The Solutions We Have Are Simply Too Tactical, Not Dealing With The Systemic Issues.

In this blog, Mootee tackles the challenge of defining sustainability. You can also read my ramblings on this topic: There is more to sustainability that just being green.

“The first problem I have with is the narrow definition of sustainability. …

If all of this sounds not confusing enough, there’s more. It is basically a humanity issue more than an environmental issue. We are not seeing the whole if we only see environment. How do we provide a decent life on this planet is a problem facing all humanity? Well I am making the problem too difficult to solve. This is a wicked problem; it is both systemic and maybe the ultimate challenge.”

– Idris Mootee, Innovation Playground

How do you innovate within an established corporation? That is the dilemma of intrapreneurs. A company, regardless of its size, can become complacent, stalling innovation. This often happens after their first success, when all hands turn to process management for optimization.

Hopefully these personal insights will help anyone in need for little strategy to successfully maneuver around the blockades in the system. Please share your own strategy and insights on what works for you.

Recognize that a small step can create giant leaps

As I mentioned before in Small steps… Big leaps, with every small step and by using tipping point leadership principles, we can all create giant leaps. Innovation comes in different shapes and sizes. It is a multidimensional concept where the innovation can happen in varying dimensions and degrees: technology, process, product, service, business model, value-delivery, brand, design, quality, culture, market, customer/segment, … So, start small. Choose an area that you not only care about, but one in which you can also be successful: success breeds success. If things don’t go as well, practice resilience, take your learnings and start again.

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Ever wondered what connectivity means around the world? How mobile technologies have impacted or influenced developing worlds? Thanks to Putting People First for pointing out the Round. The World. Connected. A video series  as well as the MMD4D blog by Mira Slavova that is focused on mobile services for emerging markets with specific focus on Africa.

The Nokia Siemens Networks has created an extremely well produced website and video series, entitled “Round. The World. Connected.” that sets out to understand what connectivity means to different people and cultures across Europe, Asia and the Americas. The project focuses specifically on how the latest communications technologies are touching peoples lives and on the socio-economic impact of connectivity.

Also, make sure to check out Futures of Learning for their research insights around the world covering everything from mobile phones to social media. 

Futures of Learning is a collective blog dedicated to the topic of new media and learning. The members of the blog are part of a project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, that is conducting an international survey of research in the field. We are focusing on two areas. One is an international review of research on how people are adopting digital and networked media. The second area is a review of learning institutions that are incorporating new media in innovative ways. We welcome suggestions for literature and programs that we should be looking at!