Operations

Thought Process

Thought Process Jonathan Poland

Thought is the mental process of perceiving, organizing, and interpreting information. It is the foundation of all higher cognitive functions, such as problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity. There are several different types of thought, including:

Abductive Reasoning

Formulating theories to explain what you observe.

Abstraction

Modeling ideas with concepts that differ from concrete reality.

Analogical Reasoning

Using an analogy to develop understanding and meaning.

Analytic Reasoning

Reasoning based on facts that require no interpretation based on experience.

Backward Induction

Reasoning backwards starting with potential conclusions.

Cognitive Biases

Patterns of thought that lead to suboptimal results such as poor decisions.

Cold Logic

Logic that fails to consider human factors.

Conceptual Thinking

The identification of patterns and abstractions in information.

Conjecture

The ability to guess at theories when information is missing.

Contemplation

Deep reflective thought that involves absolute focus on an idea for an extended period of time.

Convergent Thinking

The process of finding the “correct answer” by following predetermined steps.

Counterfactual Thinking

Thinking about the impossible. For example, thinking about past choices not taken that are now impossible.

Creativity

Creating new and unique thoughts and products of thought.

Critical Thinking

Disciplined, systematic thinking that arrives at an opinion, judgment or critique.

Divergent Thinking

The ability to solve problems by considering a large number of solutions in a creative and exploratory way. Often contrasted with convergent thinking.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to recognize and read emotions in yourself and others and use emotions in a directed way.

Flow

Flow is a state of focus in which a person is absorbed by tasks. Considered important to productivity.

Generalization

The ability to find general theories that explain observations.

Group Cognition

Social thought processes such as conversation, debate and peer review to build and challenge ideas.

Heuristics

Heuristics are practical approximations that aren’t guaranteed to be optimal. They can be calculated quickly and are often used to make decisions or react to fast moving situations.

Imagination

The ability to think about things beyond your direct experience or beyond present realities. Allows simulations of ideas to support creativity, decision making, problem solving and prediction.

Inductive Reasoning

A process of formulating theories to explain observations that allows for guesses.

Inference

Inferring new facts from what you know.

Instinct

An innate tendency towards a complex behavior. For example, it has been suggested that people tend to be instinctively curious and social.

Internal Monologue

Thinking in words.

Introspection

The process of examining your own thoughts, emotions and thought processes.

Intuition

The ability to acquire knowledge and make judgments almost instantaneously without conscious thought. Carl Jung defined it as “perception via the unconscious.”

Judgement

Judgement is the process of evaluating information to guide actions and decisions.

Logic

Logic is the discipline of valid reasoning. It is essentially a formal approach to rational thought. However, logic has limitations that don’t apply to rational thought. For example, some systems of logic can only consider true or false with nothing in between.

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking.

Minds Eye

Visualizing with your mind including both realistic visualizations from memory or imagination and visual abstractions.

Motivated Reasoning

Using logic to support a choice that’s primarily driven by motivations such as desires and fears.

Prediction

Conjecture about future events typically supported by experience and information such as trends.

Rational Thought

A state of being reasonable. Often associated with logic. However, rational thought may use natural language, visual abstractions, heuristics and partial truths that go beyond the capabilities of formal logic.

Reasoning

A broad term that includes most types of thinking but excludes emotional thought processes and intuition.

Situational Awareness

Thought processes that deal with fast moving situations such as riding a bicycle. Related to perception, comprehension, judgment, intuition and heuristics.

Social Cognition

The ability to successfully read and navigate social situations.

Speculative Reason

Reason that is theoretical as opposed to practical in nature. Speculative reason includes things such as contemplating philosophy.

Thought Experiment

Testing ideas in your head or on paper without need of acquiring real world data. Often involves either a proof from first principles or use of an analogy.

Scientific Control

Scientific Control Jonathan Poland

Scientific control is a fundamental principle of experimental research, which is used to minimize the influence of variables other than the independent variable. It is a way of carefully designing and conducting experiments in order to isolate the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable, which is the variable being measured.

The use of scientific control is essential in order to produce reliable and valid results. Without it, the effects of other variables (called confounding variables) may be misinterpreted as being due to the independent variable, leading to incorrect conclusions.

There are several ways to achieve scientific control in an experiment:

  1. Random assignment: Participants or subjects are randomly assigned to different groups or conditions, in order to control for individual differences. This helps to ensure that the groups are similar in all aspects other than the independent variable.
  2. Control group: A group of participants or subjects is used as a comparison to the experimental group, in order to control for the effects of extraneous variables. The control group is not exposed to the independent variable, and any differences between the control group and the experimental group can be attributed to the independent variable.
  3. Placebo control: A placebo is used as a control in experiments on the effectiveness of medical treatments or other interventions. The placebo is a dummy treatment that is identical in appearance to the experimental treatment, but has no active ingredients. This allows researchers to control for the psychological effects of receiving a treatment, which may influence the results.
  4. Standardized conditions: Experiments are conducted under consistent, controlled conditions in order to minimize the influence of extraneous variables. This may involve controlling for factors such as temperature, humidity, lighting, or noise levels.

By using scientific control techniques, researchers can be confident that any differences observed in the dependent variable are due to the independent variable, rather than other factors. This allows for more accurate and reliable conclusions to be drawn from the results of an experiment.

Innovation Objectives

Innovation Objectives Jonathan Poland

Innovation objectives are aims to significantly improve something through the use of experimentation, risk-taking, and creativity. These goals tend to involve a higher degree of uncertainty than traditional business objectives, which typically aim for more predictable and easily achievable improvements. Innovation objectives often require more innovative approaches to problem-solving, as they seek to make significant and transformative changes. The following are common types of innovation objectives.

Time

Making things faster, or potentially slower if that has value. For example, a manufacturer of high speed trains with a goal to make trains faster than flying for major domestic routes including the time to get to an airport.

Productivity

Getting more output for an hour worked. For example, a team of 5 software developers who want to optimize their architecture, designs, work processes and toolset to out-code a competitor with 1000+ developers.

Efficiency

Getting more output for a unit of input. For example, an architect with an objective to use passive design to produce buildings that consume 80% less energy for heating, cooling and ventilation.

Convenience

Making things easier for customers. For example, a nation aims to produce a simplified tax code that is fair, progressive and stimulative that requires less than 2 hours a year of administrative work from the average small business owner.

Quality

Transforming quality such as inline skate wheels that last 30x longer than current products on the market.

Customer Needs

Solving an unsolved problem such as curing a disease.

Customer Experience

Customer experiences that represent a leap forward such as an amusement park attraction that provides a new level of realism.

Risk

Dramatically reducing a risk. For example, a mode of transport that is an order of magnitude safer than alternatives.

Performance

Performance targets such as the speed of an algorithm.

Competitive

A competitive advantage such as an automation that reduces the cycle time of an order fulfillment process by 90%.

Knowledge

Developing superior know-how and valuable intellectual property.

Sustainability

Transforming a process that isn’t likely to end well to one that has a bright future. For example, an energy source that has a very small environmental footprint that can be scaled to meet global needs.

Quality of Life

Innovation objectives that aim to make life better such as an urban design that transforms a neighborhood.

Moonshot

A moonshot is a significant innovation that takes an extended period of time to achieve.

Commercialization

Commercialization Jonathan Poland

Commercialization is the process of introducing a new product or service into the market and making it available for purchase by consumers. It involves a range of activities, including market research, product development, marketing, and sales.

Effective commercialization requires a thorough understanding of customer needs and preferences, as well as a clear plan for bringing the product or service to market. This includes identifying the target market, developing a marketing strategy, and designing a pricing and distribution plan.

One key aspect of commercialization is the development of a go-to-market strategy, which outlines the steps necessary to bring the product or service to market and reach target customers. This may include creating a marketing plan, identifying distribution channels, and establishing partnerships with other businesses.

In order to be successful, a product or service must meet the needs of its target market and be competitive in the marketplace. This requires a deep understanding of the competitive landscape and the factors that drive consumer purchasing decisions.

Overall, commercialization is a critical step in the innovation process, as it enables companies to bring new products and services to market and generate revenue. By carefully planning and executing a commercialization strategy, businesses can increase their chances of success and drive growth.

Art

Art is often pursued for art’s sake. That is to say, that art such as painting, sculpture, music and film is often driven by creative instinct as opposed to commercial intent. As such, commercialization has somewhere negative connotations in creative professions.

Government

Governments are typically designed to protect, preserve and improve the quality of life of communities. This is very different from the profit motive that drives the private sector. Nevertheless, it is common to commercialize certain government operations with techniques such as outsourcing.

Business Capabilities

The term commercialization is often applied to the process of identifying internal business capabilities such as technologies, processes and knowledge that have potential to be a product.

Innovation

Innovation differs from traditional product development in that it involves testing out a large number of ideas. In the context of innovation, commercialization is the process of selecting a prototype or business experiment for product development.

Innovation Metrics

Innovation Metrics Jonathan Poland

Innovation metrics are tools used to assess the innovation efforts of a company. It can be challenging to accurately measure innovation, as it is often intertwined with more routine activities such as continuous improvement. The objective of innovation is to create significantly superior techniques and products compared to competitors. Therefore, metrics for early stage innovation may aim to verify that ideas and experiments are bold enough. This requires specialized metrics, as traditional business metrics are typically geared towards evaluating end results like revenue and risk reduction, rather than risk-taking.

Cost Improvement Rate

In many industries, innovation is focused on reducing a particular cost. For example, in the solar energy industry a low cost per watt is a valuable competitive advantage. A new cost rate represents the annualized reduction in a critical cost.

Development Pipeline

The number of innovations at each stage in an innovation pipeline.

Experiment Cycle Time

The average time from initial acceptance of an idea to its ultimate rejection. A short experiment cycle time indicates that ideas are quickly being validated and tested. Successful ideas are measured with the length of full innovation cycles such as time to market.

Experiments

The number of experiments conducted per month or quarter and their success rate.

Growth Gap

The gap between your target and actual growth rate. Revenue growth is often the primary goal of innovation.

Idea Breadth

The number of unique categories of innovation ideas. May highlight problems such as an innovation program that is over focused on releasing a particular category of product.

Idea Depth

The number of unique sources for ideas. Measures how well your innovation program capture ideas from your employees, partners and customers as opposed to resulting from two people brainstorming in a room.

Idea Generation

The total number of ideas that you’re considering per month or quarter.

Idea Selection

The percentage of ideas that are being accepted for experimentation.

Innovation Compensation

The percentage of your performance based compensation that can is directly tied to successful innovation.

Innovation Overhead

Your total innovation spend as a percentage of revenue. Can be used to benchmark against an industry or competitor.

New Patents

The number of new patents is amongst the oldest ways to measure innovation. Patents can be dangerous as a primary goal because they aren’t necessarily valuable to your business. It is common for leading companies by number of patents to be large, well established firms that have moderate revenue growth. In some cases, such firms are perceived as lacking in innovation despite impressive patent numbers.

New Products

The number of new products launched in a quarter. The definition of new product is important here as a slight upgrade to a product is often considered new. The goal of product innovation is to create products that improve on the old by an order of magnitude. As such, only truly new products are typically counted for the purposes of innovation metrics.

New Revenue Rate

The percentage of your revenue that comes from products that didn’t exist 3 years ago.

Project Risk

The project risk related to late stage innovation initiatives. Innovation processes typically seek to shift risks to early stage lightweight experimentation. Late stage risks are often commercially relevant and are managed with standard risk management practices.

Return On Investment

Standard financial metrics such as return on investment are used to measure the returns of an innovation program as a whole with the understanding that innovation is a long term investment that is better measured over long periods such as 3 years as opposed to quarter over quarter.

Sustainability Metrics

Innovation may be geared towards an organization’s sustainability goals that are measured with metrics such as unit energy consumption or waste output.

Time To Market

The average cycle time from idea to launch.

Time To Volume

The average cycle time from idea to launch and achievement of commercial relevance as measured by business volumes such as service subscribers.

Experiment Cycle Time

Experiment Cycle Time Jonathan Poland

Experiment Cycle Time is a measure of how long it takes for an idea to go through the innovation process, from acceptance to rejection after testing. This metric is used to assess the efficiency of the process for quickly, cheaply, and safely determining which ideas are not viable. It is not typically used as a primary goal, but rather as a secondary metric to complement other measures such as time to market or time to volume, which are used to evaluate successful ideas.

Here are some examples of Experiment Cycle Time in action:

  1. A company that develops new products has a process for evaluating and testing new ideas. They receive a suggestion for a new type of kitchen gadget and begin the innovation process. After conducting market research, prototyping, and testing the product, they determine that it is not viable due to low demand. The Experiment Cycle Time in this case would be the length of time it took to go through the entire process and make the decision to reject the idea.
  2. A tech start-up has a process for rapidly prototyping and testing new software features. They receive a suggestion for a new feature and begin the innovation process. After conducting user testing and analyzing the results, they determine that the feature is not viable due to low adoption rates. The Experiment Cycle Time in this case would be the length of time it took to go through the entire process and make the decision to reject the idea.
  3. A pharmaceutical company has a process for evaluating and testing new drug candidates. They receive a suggestion for a new medication and begin the innovation process. After conducting extensive clinical trials, they determine that the drug is not effective and decide to reject it. The Experiment Cycle Time in this case would be the length of time it took to go through the entire process and make the decision to reject the idea.

In all of these examples, Experiment Cycle Time measures the speed at which the innovation process can identify and reject ideas that are not viable, allowing the company to focus resources on more promising opportunities.

Quality Requirements

Quality Requirements Jonathan Poland

Quality requirements refer to the specific standards that a product, service, process, or environment must meet in order to be considered of high quality. Quality can refer to both tangible and intangible elements that add value beyond the functional features of a product or service. Quality requirements help to ensure that products, services, processes, and environments meet the needs and expectations of customers and stakeholders. By defining quality requirements, businesses can ensure that they are consistently delivering high-quality offerings that meet the needs of their customers. The following are illustrative examples of quality requirements.

Reliability

Enduring and consistent performance in real world conditions. For example, a drum designed to maintain its sound for at least 150,000 strikes.

Consistency

The requirement that units be the same or that units be internally consistent. For example, apples that are mostly the same size with similar appearance and taste.

Availability

The availability of a service. For example, a requirement for a software service to be up 99.99% of the time.

Usability

Requirements related to ease of use such as a can of coffee that is easy for everyone to open and reseal.

Customer Experience

Requirements that make a product or service more pleasing to customers. For example, the requirement that coffee smell good when you first open the can.

Look & Feel

The look and feel of products and services such as the aesthetics of a mobile device.

Environments

The quality of environments such as the interior design of a hotel lobby.

Customer Service

Customer service requirements such as the practice of greeting guests of a hotel by all staff in common areas such as hallways.

Performance

Performance requirements such as the responsiveness and speed of a user interface.

Maintainability

Requirements that things be easy to maintain and fix. For example, a mobile device with elements that can be swapped in and out by users to upgrade or replace things.

Materials & Ingredients

Specifications of material and ingredient quality such as the requirement that coffee be organic coffee of a particular appellation.

Ease of Use

Ease of Use Jonathan Poland

Ease of use refers to the usability of a product, service, tool, process, or environment, and is an important factor in the satisfaction and loyalty of customers. Ease of use involves making a product or service easy to understand, learn, and use, with minimal effort or frustration.

There are several ways in which ease of use can be achieved. One is by designing products and services with user-centered principles, which involves understanding the needs, preferences, and abilities of the target user group. This can be achieved through user research, prototyping, and testing to ensure that the design meets the needs of the user.

Another aspect of ease of use is simplicity, which involves minimizing the number of steps or actions required to use a product or service. By reducing complexity, businesses can make their products and services more accessible and easier to use for a wider range of users.

In addition, the layout and organization of a product or service can also impact ease of use. By presenting information and features in a clear and logical manner, businesses can make their products and services more intuitive and easier to use. Overall, ease of use is a crucial aspect of customer satisfaction and loyalty, and businesses that prioritize it can gain a competitive advantage in their market. By designing products and services with user-centered principles, simplicity, and clear layout, businesses can create offerings that meet the needs and expectations of their customers, resulting in higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty. The following are illustrative examples of ease of use.

Accessibility

Designs that are useful to as many people as possible including people with disabilities. For example, a wide entranceway with a gentle slope as opposed to stairs.

Productivity

How quickly people can accomplish goals. For example, software that can be completely configured from one screen without having to dig through dozens of menus.

Learnability

Things that are easy to learn such as a app that is immediately intuitive to most users.

Information

Information that is easy to find and understand such as a clean label on a food product.

Undo

The ability to undo unintended actions.

Convenience

Convenience such as a mobile device that fits in your pocket.

Maintenance

Easy maintenance procedures such as a mobile device with swappable parts that can be replaced by users when they break.

Extensibility

Easy improvements such as a mobile device that allows users to swap in hardware upgrades.

Compatibility

Things that effortlessly work with other things such as a printer that works from a phone without configuration or need to install an app.

Error Tolerance

Products and services that try reasonably hard to continue to operate when errors occur. For example, a web browser that doesn’t crash the first time it finds some broken code on a web page.

Reliability

Endurance and durability in real world conditions such as a software service that is always up.

Design Quality

Design Quality Jonathan Poland

Design quality refers to the value that a design holds for customers. It is a critical factor in the success of a product, service, or experience, as it directly impacts the satisfaction and loyalty of customers. There are several ways in which design quality can be achieved. One is by focusing on usability, which involves ensuring that a design is intuitive and easy to use. This can be achieved through user-centered design principles, such as conducting user research, prototyping, and testing to understand the needs and preferences of target customers.

Another aspect of design quality is aesthetics, which refers to the visual appeal of a design. Aesthetically pleasing designs can create a positive emotional response in customers, which can increase their satisfaction and loyalty.

In addition, design quality can be enhanced by considering the functionality of a design, which refers to its ability to perform the tasks it was intended to do effectively and efficiently. This can be achieved through careful planning and attention to detail in the design process. Overall, design quality is an essential element of customer satisfaction and loyalty, and businesses that prioritize it can gain a competitive advantage in their market. By focusing on usability, aesthetics, and functionality, businesses can create designs that meet the needs and expectations of their customers, resulting in higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty.

Functionality & Features

Functionality that serves customer needs and meets customer expectations. Another factor in design quality is avoiding features that customers find annoying. In many cases, products with few features can be perceived as higher quality than a product packed with features.

Performance

The operational characteristics of a design such as the conversion efficiency of solar panels.

Usability

A design that is pleasing to use.

Accessibility

A design that is equally useful for everyone.

Aesthetics

A pleasing look and feel.

Reliability

Designs that endure real world conditions over time.

Predictability

Designs that work as people expect. For example, if a user interface requires training to use it may be poorly designed.

Consistency

Consistency such as a user interface with the same controls on every page.

Stability

Designs that are error free.

Fault Tolerance

The ability to continue in a reasonable way when an error occurs. For example, an aircraft that doesn’t suddenly halt and catch fire every time an error occurs.

Safety & Security

Designing things for safety and security. For example, transportation systems designed to reduce human error.

Reusability

A design that is reusable and extensible. For example, a mobile device that allows memory to be upgraded as opposed to requiring a completely new device when you need more capacity.

Communications & Packaging

Packaging and communications such as as instructions. Packaging has a significant impact on quality perceptions. In many cases, packaging such as a reusable shoe bag can be considered a feature.

Experience

Intangible elements of quality such as a business tool that is as engaging as a game.

Emotional Durability

A design that people value at an emotional level such that they don’t easily throw it out. For example, a bicycle that is worth fixing when it breaks.

Refinement

The overall sophistication and elegance of a design. For example, a cosmetic product that is effective with just three natural ingredients might be viewed as more refined than a product with 50 chemicals.

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