Innovation and the NPD Wave
After talking with a co-worker the other day about trying to get out in front of the NPD wave (being able to spend time planning and thinking about the future), I sketched this up to illustrate the idea.
Everyone is probably familiar with getting caught up in the wave that is New Product Development. Or perhaps you have even spent some time in the trough cleaning up after the wave… aka Quality Control. But the analogy also helped when thinking about being in front of the wave. Dreaming is what happens when you are free to think without any consideration for NPD. That’s definitely necessary to imagine “what could be.” I think the most important point however, is at the leading edge of the wave. That’s where innovation occurs. Tied just closely enough to implementation, but leading the way. Just as a real wave, the ride is difficult to sustain so make the best of it.