Page 67 - Free the Idea Monkey

5. The problem: We must be ahead of our time.
The way the complaint is usually presented: “We know we have
discovered the right insight and have a brilliant technology to meet
the need, but our customers don’t seem excited enough about it.”
Solution: Research is more than just a way to uncover and vali-
date needs; it is a way to hear how your customers talk about them.
Take care to create an innovation team that includes the writers and
creative folk who will have to manage the launch of the idea—no
troop is complete without them. They will make sure they use your
customer’s own language as they creatively describe the idea—so
they recognize it.
Extra Credit: As the TIVO example proves, resist the urge to talk
about more than one benefit. Just because your product can deliver
multiple benefits doesn’t mean you have to talk about every one of
them. Thrill your customer by delivering on the primary benefit bril-
liantly, and allow them to discover the others on their own.

A QUICK REVIEW
In the context of our formula for successful innovation:
Need + Idea + Communication = A Winner

you can see how creating new products becomes substantially easier.

Idea Monkeys are passionately focused on pushing their
ideas into the market. Your job as the “(Ring)leader” is to help
channel them with simple questions and practices that assure

they are staying true to the innovation formula and thus
increase their chances of market acceptance (i.e., success).

That sounds simple. But you know from past experience, it is
not. To help you keep the Idea Monkey on track, you might want
to follow a script that sounds something like this the next time the
Monkey comes up with “something totally great.”

52 C H A N N E L I N G T H E M O N K E Y