ELEVATE STRATEGY AT YOUR COMPANY: HOW TO BUILD A REPEATABLE PROCESS FOR

INNOVATION

Rick Watson

February 28, 2012

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SITUATION AT MANY RETAILERS…

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SITUATION AT MANY RETAILERS…

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SITUATION AT MANY RETAILERS…

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RICK WATSON

• GM, Marketplace for Barnes & Noble.com

• Software / Technology Background

• Been in ECommerce Industry for 13 years

• Twitter: @rickwatson

• Website: http://rickwatsonsblog.com/

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A DIFFERENT FILTER IS NEEDED

Project Type Project Goals Strategy Execution

Expand & Improve Improve one of your KPIs 25% 75%

Experimentation Business segment replacement/addition in 3-5 years

75% 25%

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GENERAL FRAMEWORK

1. Think critically about people’s needs

2. Capture relevant trends inside/outside your industry

3. Brainstorm at the intersection

4. Execute

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PEOPLE ANALYSIS

• Focus on: emotions, decisions, priorities in their lives.

• What jobs are they hiring you to solve?

• What else people did people do before to solve these kinds of problems?

• What types of people are not able to access your industry’s services?

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PEOPLE ANALYSIS: STROLLERS

• Zero time in the day for themselves

• What will I do with this thing when my daughter outgrows it?

• Neighborhood status symbols

• Wonder where my babysitter goes with the child when I’m away?

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THINK ABOUT BROAD INDUSTRY TRENDS

• What types of things are:

• People using more of? Less of?

• Getting more or less expensive to produce?

• What do you know will be certain 10 years from now?

• What things did you grow up with that are now completely irrelevant to a 10 year old?

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BROAD INDUSTRY TRENDS: EXAMPLES• Economy doesn’t look like it will improve quickly for most people.

• Subscription services are becoming more popular rather than buying everything up front.

• More people are starting families later in life.

• It’s 10x easier to manufacture your own product today than it was 20 years ago.

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PEOPLE/INDUSTRY INTERSECTION

• Setting Expectations

• What if?

• Why not?

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INTERSECTION EXAMPLES

• GPS Tracking or Tiny Cameras on Strollers, viewable on Mobile

• Custom-built Travel Stroller

• Stroller Trade-in Service

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EVALUATING YOUR IDEAS

• Open up access to a new set of customers?

• Could see yourself tinkering with idea 5 years from now?

• Could envision a shallow investment profile?

• Unclear who else might execute this?

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EXECUTION

• Goal: Select one idea a year to execute

• Look for a market

• Establish ownership & ideas to test

• Independence is critical

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SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO APPLY THIS

1. Start in your own area: your group is a microcosm of the company.

2. Early on:

Take shortcuts. Use vendors. Outsource. Build prototypes. Think critically and learn the domain.

3. Later on:

Firm up critical systems. Refine business model & expectations.

Define critical success factors. Scale & build.

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SUMMARY/TAKEAWAYS

• Innovation and long-term investment must be priority #1 to get attention. Traditional thinking needs to flip.

• Thinking needs to evolve beyond how to improve your metrics – those ideas go in another bucket

• Questions about the intersection of people and industry trends provide the fuel for product & services

• Experimentation takes time

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