Building the innovation stack

Developing the innovation stack takes the view that innovation is a series of building blocks stacked on top of each other with different layers to work through. These stacks follow an established logic, such as working through idea discovery, relating to given problems, exploring solutions, and determining the final model or design and the execution delivery to achieve this. Combining these “building blocks” modularly in innovation stacks creates a unique design that adapts to your specific needs and goals.

Today, innovation processes are partly designed this way but are more rigid and hold knowledge often as “islands” within a possible solution. We can mix and match different emerging or established innovation approaches but sometimes miss valuable points and due to this lack of “being connected up” we lose flexibility, sometimes meaning and miss some of the potential value as the parts are not as well interlinked or dynamic; we screen out more than we add-in. Our approach today is to reduce complexity as early as possible and make decisions perhaps too early; we often stop the additional learning by further probing and gathering.

I believe in approaching innovation differently by combining the ingenuity of human and artificial intelligence in a more modern way, through the application of building blocks delivering specific API solutions, and innovation stacks that connect it all up, based on a technology platform that flows across all our innovation processes.

So far, in my series of posts on Building a Different Innovation Process, I have argued in my first post: “Are we EVER going to embrace innovation” differently? We operate in a different era today, one of growing complexity and relationship-centricity, yet our innovation management approaches LACK comprehensive solutions that embrace Ecosystem and platform thinking and design. We need to fully connect our approaches to innovation thinking, in designs, flow, and throughput so we constantly build our knowledge and insights across organizations and beyond.

My second post was reviewing and “recognizing the building blocks of innovation” of existing tools, techniques, frameworks, mechanics, and emerging methodologies that are advancing our ability to innovate. We often “keep” what we have gained in insights or evaluation locked in specific tools or frameworks. We suffer islands of knowledge, of working separately, and fail to allow innovation, in insights and potential understanding, to flow across organizations.

This third post dives a little deeper into exploring Innovation Stacks

We need our innovation architecture to allow the leveraging of insights and knowledge by selecting each time the appropriate building blocks as the “chosen” components of the innovation stack and work through the innovation stack approach to guide innovation platform development. It is by using the platform approach we support the innovation stack to be enabled and have a strong foundation that supports each of the multiple layers within the complete design.

Now this needs explaining here a little more

Firstly think of Lego, which is modular in its design and ability to fit together as you wish. We stack them and they interlink.

Let’s take where the innovation stack and the building block ecosystem, platform approach can be combined in several ways to determine its essential parts.

1. Using building blocks as components of the innovation stack: In this part of the design, building blocks, such as APIs or software modules, are components of the innovation stack. Organizations can use pre-built building blocks to accelerate their innovation process and focus on adding value in other areas.
2. Using the innovation stack to guide platform development: This is the core within the design, the innovation stack, it is used as a frame for developing a platform or ecosystem of building blocks. Each layer of the innovation stack can be used as a blueprint for developing the corresponding platform layer. For example, the idea layer of the innovation stack might correspond to the ideation tools and resources available on the platform.
3. Using the platform to support the innovation stack: The technology foundation part, the platform or ecosystem of building blocks is used to support the innovation stack. For example, a platform might provide tools and resources for ideation, problem validation, solution development, and execution. It is by leveraging the platform; organizations can create a more seamless and efficient innovation process.

Different innovation thinking needs always require different adaption.

We need to build our own purpose-built design; we need to first identify the key innovation building blocks relevant to the idea, problem validation, solution development, model design, and execution.

We need to map out the frame of the required innovation stack by building the necessary layers that are relevant and necessary and drawing these down from the platform in the form of the needed components. We are customizing our approach constantly to fit specific needs and goals. We have the shape and structure we can continuously iterate and improve, a different innovation engine that works for that problem or challenge. Each time we approach the innovation as a unique modular innovation framework.

This design and thinking require a technology software solution as the platform as this offers the foundation and houses and provides all the components into available building blocks, the innovation stack structure, modular and customized.

Still, this becomes the end game in design

We need to move back to describing innovation stacks a little more.

In my research on innovation stacks, it was Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square, partly through his book “ The Innovation Stack: Building an unbeatable business one crazy idea at a time” coined the term “innovation stacks” to describe the series of technical, product design, manufacturing and supply chain breakthroughs that is often required to go through to deliver a transformational solution into the marketplace. The aim was to build an innovative solution that both disrupted the status quo and created a huge barrier to entry for competitors who might attempt to copy it. Arguably this was more for a startup.

Examples like IKEA, Square (Jim McKelvey’s solution), and Southwest Airlines are credited with creating innovation stacks. I believe we can take this concept beyond the application and use of building block components and platform management for all to think and design in new innovative ways.

So the innovation stacks are interlinking in tools, actions, and resources available. We need to think of “technology stack” or “software stack”. Tools, techniques, programs, technologies, and applications are designed to work in tandem, think APIs, and have layers. In the case of an innovation stack, this might be deploying stacks such as the idea layer, the problem validation layer, the solution development layer, the final design layer (perhaps a new business model), and the execution layer.

We build innovation stacks of building blocks and platform components. I will describe these further in my next post. These provide the tools, software packages, and solution sets that need to combine and work together, and we arrive at a final solution architecture built for your specific innovation needs.

The innovation stack’s aim or design is to reveal the knowledge and flows we need to achieve the end result. I have been reminded by Larry Schmitt from the Inovo Group, offering his view of the Innovation Stacks recently. One really useful point he makes is that there are three perspectives within the final design 1) the structural perspective, 2) the human perspective in the engagement in activities to perform that extracts specific skills, and 3) the knowledge perspective as the ability to accumulate, transform, interpret and process what is needed in this innovation undertaking.

Combining all three perspectives enables this richness in approaching innovation in this building block, innovation stack, and platform design and thinking approach. We often fail to capture how knowledge was achieved, what human aspect was missing, and the gaps in the structure.

Advantages of building an innovation stack

So to sum up here, by adopting the thinking of innovation stacks, they become unique by the individual selection of the components and parts delivered on a technology platform.

Building an innovation stack on a platform increases business agility through interlinking innovation across a company’s infrastructure, culture, and employee base. Having innovation, knowledge, and data flowing across the organization, you gain more significant reaction, awareness, and traction to respond to changes.

Investing in a comprehensive innovation architecture, you begin to break down complexity and tackle challenges with confidence, as you can provide a transparent process and enable external partners to participate and contribute their knowledge and expertise in an Ecosystem, Platform environment.

Understanding the flow of innovation enables your resources to build solutions that support your brand, vision, and purpose; you provide the operating system for taking innovation to its rightful place, at the core of your organization’s thinking and mindset.

Approaching the next post – offering greater granularity

My next post explores this design thinking for innovation, a level or two deeper, that guides and formulates this new approach to innovation in using technology, platforms and ecosystem thinking and design. I explore this design further in building out the business case of this necessary change, one that provides a pathway towards a radically different innovation architectural design and giving it further granularity.