You're debating innovation levels with your team on a new product. How do you find common ground?

Before we get lost in brainstorming a million ideas, let's define our innovation North Star. What problem are we trying to solve? What gap are we filling for our customers? Imagine success as a beacon. Is it a product that solves a daily frustration for users? Or maybe it's completely disrupting the market? Let's get clear on our goals so we can evaluate our creative ideas. They might be fantastic, but if they don't lead us to that success beacon, we need to adjust course. This way, we'll avoid innovation for innovation's sake. Instead, we'll be charting a course for solutions that are both innovative AND impactful. Now that's something to get excited about!

To establish a common ground with team members about new product development, Smart leader should move in two strategic directions. 1) Creating the buy-in spirit by using clear / smart methods of communication to highlight genuinely the purpose of such (product or service) and how much important that product to the market and the organization. then the second phase #2) whereas essential to formulate a culture of Win-Win! But what this means? It means special effort / leadership skills from the leader to find the key points of motivating the team members for being active participants in the discussions and the execution / testing phases & the concept of collective brainstorming and KATA deployment are always helpful tools in this regard.

Finding common ground in innovation debates involves balancing ambition with practicality. By using diverse team expertise and encouraging open discussions, you can align innovative ideas with overarching product goals. Early prototyping transforms theoretical debates into tangible experiences, providing concrete evidence that guides consensus. As an Owner of mobile & web app development company having passion about AI integrated features development, I often find framing innovation through the lens of user benefit helps bridge the gap.

Innovation is exciting, but it can also feel like walking a tightrope. We all want to push boundaries and create something groundbreaking, but recklessness isn't innovation. That's where assessing risk comes in. For me, it's about finding the sweet spot. I love brainstorming wild ideas, but I also know the importance of understanding our team's risk tolerance and the market's appetite for change. By gauging these factors, we can ensure our "leaps" are calculated, not chaotic. This balanced approach allows us to embrace ambitious ideas while keeping a firm foot in reality. It means we can be bold and grounded at the same time, ultimately delivering a product that's both innovative and successful.

By ranking features based on how well they align with our goals and how risky they are, we're separating the must-haves from the "wouldn't that be cool?" ideas. It's like finally decluttering your mental workspace. This focus is key. It helps us all understand what's truly important for making product a success. We can then agree on how innovative we should be this time around. No more wasting time on features that might be fun but don't actually move the needle. Let's build something that matters, something our users need. Now that's a brainstorming session I can get behind!

Encouraging the team to list the proposed features for any new product is something crucial but it might be similar to the same approach of competitors and here’s the game changer which we should call it find your value proposition !! What does this mean ?! 🔎 Sometimes for each similar products, you might find variations in each culture using the same product. For example, in some cultures the price is the hot driver for the customers and some other cultures the quality / durability are the most important- - Etc. From that perspective, understanding the market culture is very critical while creating your value proposition, then the team collectively will be able to prioritise the features that are matching their initial strategic vision.

A diverse and cross-functional team can help with innovative ideas. When you share the problem with open-ended questions, various team members will come up with great ideas. Because of their diverse backgrounds, skills, and experience, they will look at the problem from multiple angles, which results in innovative solutions.

It is crucial to build and release quickly so that you can see users' reactions to your product. Use their usage, analytics and direct feedback to identify fixes, new features and enhancements. Your users can help you build your product and make it useful to a larger audience.

Bring in data, user research, and market analysis to inform the discussion. Evidence-based decision-making can help ground debates in reality and reduce subjective biases.