🆕 Join the Miro "How I Innovate" challenge for a chance to win 🏆

Innovation is about challenging the status quo and continuously seeking better ways to achieve our goals. It's about embracing new technologies, thinking outside the box, and not being afraid to experiment and learn from failures. Whether it's in the professional sphere or personal life, innovation is the key to staying ahead and making a meaningful impact.

On the professional side, when I was at HBO, we built an accelerometer into a boxing glove to test the force and speed of a punch, and bring more story to the viewing of HBO Boxing outside of a guy counting punches at the side of the ring. My personal innovation on the NYC subway system in the summer is to strap a cold pack under your clothes while commuting. I call it a PAU, personal air-conditioning unit.

Finding new avenues for value creation without falling into the trap of creating entirely new values. All the while ensuring a culture, that is open to adapt to change. Transparency is a huge part of how I see innovation with the customer’s perceptions in mind. And it starts within your team before it reaches the customer. More about the “us” then the “we”. How adaptability can lead to entertaining the education of progress for us.

@Caroline Giegerich 

Personal air-conditioning unit! That’s funny! (Don’t your clothes get wet?) Either way, these takes on innovation made me smile today. :)

“Identifying unmet user needs”-- that alone can unlock so much potential and innovation @JazUXNZ! Thank you for sharing!

Well said Anna! Simple and direct! Just curious do you have any challenges you’ve faced recently that you were able to transform into an opportunity that you’d be willing to share?

Hello Miro Community! 👋

Innovation, to me, is fundamentally about fostering an environment where flexibility, adaptability, and interconnectivity 🔄 are at the forefront of organizational practices. As an Agile Coach, I see innovation not just as the adoption of new tools, but as a mindset shift that embraces continuous improvement and collaboration across all levels of a product organization.

Recently, we've started using Miro to completely transform our approach to product backlogs and roadmaps. 🗺️ By visualizing these elements, we’ve made our planning processes more dynamic and transparent. This allows every team member to see how their work connects to larger organizational goals, boosting alignment and motivation. 

Additionally, using Miro to map out dependencies between teams has ignited a new level of strategic collaboration, crucial for tackling complex projects that span multiple product teams. 🌐 This practice not only improves our workflow efficiency but also enriches our collective strategic insight, making our development processes not just faster, but smarter.

These innovations are more than just improvements; they're about creating a culture that anticipates change and embraces it with open arms. 🤗 I’m eager to hear how others are using innovation to enhance their organizational and personal lives. 🙌🏻

In my work, innovation involves introducing new ideas, workflows, methodologies, services, or products that significantly improve or transform an organization’s operations. It’s about developing and implementing novel solutions that enhance efficiency, productivity, customer satisfaction, and overall business outcomes. Innovation isn’t just about creating something new; it’s also about optimizing existing processes, encouraging creative problem-solving, and fostering a culture that supports continuous improvement and adaptability. 

From my experience, critical aspects of workplace innovation include creativity and ideation, collaboration and teamwork, technology and tools, process improvement, a customer-centric approach, and adaptability and flexibility. However, the role of leadership and vision in driving these aspects cannot be overstated. Encouraging employees to question, think outside the box, and propose ideas is crucial. I believe in creating environments that stimulate creative thinking, such as brainstorming sessions, innovation labs, and cross-functional workshops. Promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration helps leverage diverse perspectives and expertise while open communication and teamwork build a collective approach towards innovation. In one role, this led to the launch of over 40 digital features that enhanced application usability and access, resulting in a 30% increase in customer engagement and a 59% growth in active users in one year.

Building a culture that embraces change and encourages experimentation and learning from failures is essential. Staying nimble and responsive to changes, technological advancements, and emerging opportunities is something I strive for. Developing scalable and sustainable solutions that can grow with the organization and adapt to future needs is another critical aspect. Creating frameworks and processes that ensure long-term viability and continuous improvement is part of my approach.

As a business coach and leadership trainer, I use Miro to co-create with my clients. The co-creation already takes place before getting the purchase order. I listen to my client, "paint the picture” in Miro, brainstorm on possible approaches and at the end of the meeting(s) we've co-created the way we will deal with their challenges. Making the final offer is now a piece of cake, because I allready have the buy in from the client.

For me, this is completely different from how I did it before Miro. Also the success rate of my quotations has improved considerably. 

Another example is collaboration accross the world and time zones. By getting everone on the same board, we can add our part to the project at the time that suits us best. Using Zoom for synchronous and Miro for a-synchronous collaboration, is a real game changer. 

For me it's becoming hard to imagine work without Miro!

Very true TVKarina! It doesn’t matter that it’s apparently insignificant to others, if it’s a change that has lots of positive impact it will be perceived as an innovative leap forward! Actually, especially because it was “insignificant” it will also have a bit of a surprise wow effect once the results are seen!

Exactly! You get it-- Thank you :)

Innovation is continuous improvement (Kaizen). Here in Brazil I had a case of a client who had a productivity problem and there I was able to show how improvement can go further using creativity. Even innovation is not just about technology. Watch the video to see the difference between innovating in technique (1 and 2) and innovating with technology (3). Innovation brings a new product or process to a new level that was previously established, regardless of the context, it will always be an improvement.

Helping people see their worth

My place of work is going through large scale restructuring, a complete change to the ways of working – loosely Waterfall to Agile. At the same time, from the highest levels, we now have mandated cost reductions - that always seems to only mean a severe haircut to the headcount. The job market here in New Zealand is being suddenly flooded by those without work. 

Fast paced change? It feels more like a chaotic everything everywhere, and all at once! Needless to say, people are worried.

It’s hard to be innovative when it feels like nothing is stable and the sands could swallow you at any point. Not knowing if I am safe or not, I have chosen to focus on what I can do in my circle of control, to help my colleagues I see struggling.

I’m leveraging Miro to collaborate and conduct visual workshops to help my team see how their existing skillsets from the Waterfall structure can be effectively translated to Agile roles, while simultaneously helping them see their transferable skills.

My hope is by reducing the cognitive load and reducing the stress of the unknown, they can shift their focus to their circle of control - obtain new skills and backing themselves by highlighting the existing value they bring to the table.

I want to create an anchor point to hold on to- people being able to see we all remain valuable assets- in this new structure or to other potential employers.