What are the challenges hindering innovation in your org? đŸ€“


Userlevel 7
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Hi Miro Heroes,

This week, @Jay Melone is hosting an event where he will show how customer-centric problem framing helps drive efficiencies and innovation. 

I am super excited to learn about this methodology! But I’m also super curious what challenges have you encountered while trying to innovate? I feel like it’s useful to understand before we go into learning how to foster innovation and efficient problem solving. 

What are the challenges hindering innovation in your org? Please share in the comments!Â đŸ€”

When I think about my experience working in tech, innovation is all about open communication and fast feedback loops, so anything that prevents it is bad for innovation. What do you think? 

 


11 replies

Userlevel 7
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I would say the biggest challenge is traditional enterprise processes where development teams are turned into a “feature factory” with no proper product discovery. 😅

Userlevel 5
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There is still this mindset of product and engineering with design on the backfoot or on an island somewhere nowhere near product and engineering. 

 

On top of that, what I always find hilarious, is that these said companies then start to reference Google and other big tech orgs who have big built out design teams who work closely with product and engineering 


There is still this mindset of product and engineering with design on the backfoot or on an island somewhere nowhere near product and engineering. 

 

On top of that, what I always find hilarious, is that these said companies then start to reference Google and other big tech orgs who have big built out design teams who work closely with product and engineering 


It sounds like you’re talking about silos, and in particular design being devalued? Did I get that right?

If so, how is that bad for innovation?

Userlevel 7
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@Jay Melone How are silos and devaluation of design not bad for innovation? 😄

@Jay Melone How are silos and devaluation of design not bad for innovation? 😄

And yet, they still exist.

People like us working within product innovation, get that. How do we help others outside of product understand why “design not having a seat at the table” is bad for busienss?

Userlevel 7
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@Jay Melone Hear hear. I think the only way to make people understand that is to continue disrupting big companies. Even contribute to it whenever one have the opportunity to do so.

Because essentially all disruptions happen not only with UX design at the table, but as the main driver. Just look at Uber: it's not like there was a lack of taxi services before they arrived. They simply solved problems (lack of cash, faulty payment terminals, “dine and dash” attempts, etc) and improved the user experience through innovation.

But yeah, it's quite a daunting task to make people outside of product understand how important collaboration is to feed innovating. 😅

Userlevel 7
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@Anna Savina -

The most common one I’ve encountered is a culture of low psychological safety within teams coupled with a “it’s got to be perfect the first time” or “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions” mindset from leaders. Both contribute to a “play it safe”, hesitation to experimentation approach which is lethal to innovation and creativity.

Kiron

Userlevel 7
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@Kiron Bondale love your point! I think psychological safety is EXTREMELY important. What I really value about Miro is being allowed to fail and being encouraged to learn from our mistakes. Pre-pandemic, we even had a ritual where we would have a happy hour on Friday and make short presentations about our fails and what our insights were based on this negative experiences. It’s so important to be able to be vulnerable with your team! 

Userlevel 7
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Hey everyone, I will be sending a recording and all the resources to everyone who RSVPed for the event today. Please let me know if you didn’t get it and i’ll send it to you personally 😊

I would say the biggest challenge is traditional enterprise processes where development teams are turned into a “feature factory” with no proper product discovery. 😅

Yes, and what’s the challenge of not having proper discovery? How would you position this to the c-suite or a senior business leader?

What would improve at the company level if this were fixed?

Userlevel 7
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Yes, and what’s the challenge of not having proper discovery? How would you position this to the c-suite or a senior business leader?

What would improve at the company level if this were fixed?

The challenge of not having proper discovery is the risk of being disrupted. Disruptions happen all the time and have been happening since forever, putting a lot of companies out of business. What's different now compared to 100 or 200 years ago is that it happens much faster nowadays.

If it was fixed, it would greatly improve the company’s chances of not only sustaining their position on the market(s), but growing their market share.

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