Innovation is No Longer Optional

Doug Hall has been in the innovation space for more than 30 years. His new book, Driving Eureka!, is about finding, filtering and fast-tracking to market and includes an update on what is continuously being learned about creating, communicating, and commercializing ideas.

In 1986, Doug started Eureka Ranch, an early "accelerator" program focused on commercializing products. He took a system-driven approach to innovation to enable businesses to increase speed and decrease risk. In 2008, Doug created Innovation Engineering, a field of study that will be on over 100 campuses by 2019. Innovation Engineering focuses on how to find, filter and fast-track​ ideas. He backs it with software that helps users find data through tools like rapid cycles, sales forecasts, writing patterns, and project management designed for innovation.

Doug’s seen many ideas get compromised through development. His software captures data and helps businesses use the data as they go through the process. It’s designed to deal with uncertainty and helps companies document, creating quantitative information. Doug uses a Deming approach. Innovation has to be in everyone. May need a culture shift in companies, but have to change the person before you can change the organization. Culture change two ways: led by the top or enable the workers. Train to work smarter in their job. 

It’s all about cycles: run experiment, study what you learned, do it again. How does a cycle work? An idea faces three death threats: market risks, tech risks, and organizational risks. Then you get a meaningful uniqueness score. Then put the idea through a 4-step Deming Cycle: Plan (what are you trying to do), Do (what experiment are you running), Study (why did it work), and Act (What are you going to do. Go around again or change, adapt).

SPECIAL BONUS: To find out more, go to Doughall.com/VIP and you’ll find a one-hour audio Book with a prescription for success and to help you understand your strengths and abilities to innovate. 

If you liked this episode, you might also enjoy Ep. 109- Greg Larkin, Author of This Might Get Me Fired, Ep. 95- Steve Glaveski with Collective Campus and Ep. 94- Andy Cars with Lean Ventures


GET THE LATEST RESOURCES: Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy