Technology trails to discover

Red Arrows British F1 8 July 2007i009
Originally uploaded by Martin Pettitt

When the first manifestation of a new technology makes its debut it is usually in the form of a device. A device is technology that doesn't quite work properly for a generalised sample of users but fascinates the geeks among us; a kind of alpha test for feasibility, but certainly not for viability, and maybe not even validity. The trajectory unfolding as the technology is refined can be perturbed by a timely injection of a potential customer's needs perturbing the technology trajectory from a near miss opportunity for the device into a valid product programme; If other customers also buy into the basic concept the chances of a viable product increase considerably. It is the inability to empathise with emerging indicators of needs of that early market that leads to a high failure rate, or as Martin Rigby , MD of ET Capital puts it:

“The biggest single failing in British innovation businesses is identifying true market need and specifying a product or service which meets that need. That is the biggest glaring gap.”

We also need to understand that technology is not an end in itself but an enabler; to quote Dave Rogers

“Technology changes how we do things. It doesn't change what we do. Ain't no technology that's gonna do that for us. Wanna better world? Be better people.”

In Marketing the Unknown: Developing market strategies for technical innovations Paul Millier talks extensively about this and includes a diagram that I've adapted here:

So if we have a technology worth pursuing the sooner we connect with potential customers the better. As Seth Godin puts it in this video  "...good technology gives you a shot at marketing."

But as Paul Millier points out a good way to lose a great deal of money is to develop a device and then improve the technology some more without really doing anything about the utility of the device. At the end of the day when we account for our innovative acumen it is the words of Michael Schrage that count:

"Innovation' isn't what innovators do....it's what customers and clients adopt."

Or to put it from the customers' perspective

Picture Uploaded by Lloydyidau. Used with thanks under CC.

So how can we deploy Design Technology to help?