The Twins of Innovation: Discovery and Invention

One of the lessons we learned this past year reminds us that our entrepreneurial initiatives have a better chance for success when technical invention is linked to market discovery.  

All too often our efforts are unbalanced with one side of the equation is emphasized more than the other. Complete commercial success can easily elude a brilliant technical invention because it lacks a match in demand from customers and end-users. Likewise, success can also elude the insightful discoverer of an emerging customer need without the technical and proprietary means to exploit it.

Some innovations that came from the successful integration of market discovery and technical invention include:

• The invention of a proprietary process technology for non-woven materials along with the discovery of the prevalence of incontinence among an increasingly aging population led a Fortune 500 company to create a significant new market and product category.

• The interest of a few bikers to ride trails rather than paved roads, coupled with the appearance of larger knobby tires, stronger bike frames, more gears and shorter handle bars led to the introduction of the first mass produced mountain bike which transformed the entire bicycle industry.  

• The invention of the bread machine radically changed the bread baking habits of consumers and thereby significantly affected the competitive demand and dynamics of ingredient suppliers.

With such compelling evidence for the importance of matching technical invention with market discovery, it is a bit surprising how often we short change one or the other. Is it because the people who can do both, the “flute playing brick layers,” as my mentor used to call them, are so few and far between?

Perhaps a partial answer lies in recognizing that while newness—the key attribute of both patents and superior marketing—can come from either technical inventiveness or market insight, it is much better to source that newness from both sides.  

This article was originally published in Innovating Perspectives in January 1997. For this and other back issues of our newsletter, please visit our website at innovationsthatwork.com or call (415) 460-1313.