Summary product innovation (all lectures, book, feedbackfruits)
Introduction to Schilling - individual creativity
An individual’s creative ability is thought to be a function of their:
● Intellectual abilities
● Knowledge
● Personality
● Motivation
● Environment
All the elements lead to creativity/can influence their creativity.
Key intellectual abilities for creativity include:
● Intelligence
● Memory
● Ability to look at problems in unconventional ways
● Ability to articulate ideas to others
Example of how intelligence + memory leads to creativity → Tesla. Photographic memory.
Knowledge on creativity can be double edged:
1. Having a lot of knowledge in an area can make you more familiar with potential
solutions, and more skilled at selecting among them
2. Too much knowledge in an area can also sometimes trap you in assumptions and
paradigms that prevent you from generating more novel solutions.
Breakthrough innovation often comes from outsiders to an industry → Elon Musk had no
background in aerospace. The rest had too much knowledge.
Personality can all facilitate creativity
- Having a high need for autonomy
- Being willing to challenge authority
1
, - High self-efficacy
Example: Georgi O’Keeffe → Things in my head that things don’t have in their head. I
decided to start anew.
Self-efficacy = a person’s belief that they can overcome all obstacles to achieve their goals.
High self-efficacy = more risk taking.
Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is very important for creativity, individuals are more likely to be creative
if they work on things they are genuinely interested in and enjoy.
Extrinsic motivation can undermine creativity.
Dean Kamen: ‘I just believe in it. It might fail, but you’ve got to try.’ He wants to make the
world a better place.
Environment
An environment that lets people be individualistic, is risk tolerant, and empowers people to
have dissenting views can empower creativity.
2
,Introduction to Schilling - Patterns of innovation
Innovation is predictable. It has patterns to make predictions:
1. Technology S-Curves of Performance
2. Technology Cycles
3. Diffusion of Innovation & Adopter Categories
S-Curves in Technology Performance
In the beginning improvement is very difficult. There is not enough information, not inputs,
and I make a lot of mistakes.
Improvement can start to accelerate → improvement gets it pay off.
Approached the limits of the technology. You solved the easy things.
Technology Cycles
Technology often flows in a cycle. Firstly, technological discontinuity will go to the era of
ferment where designs will compete for dominance.
Once the designs have emerged, we enter the era of incremental change: many firms are
competing to improve the dominant design.
Era of Ferment = beginning part of the s curves
Era of incremental change = speed improvement curve in S curve
3
, Diffusion of innovation
Many people convince other friends to adopt innovation.
The number of adopters will increase very hard.
After that, the number of new adopters will decline.
Early adopters: good leaders. Richard Branson.
Early majority: product is good and reliable. A friend wants to meet at a hot new cafe.
Late majority: they feel pressure from peers. Mother on TikTok.
Laggards: very late. They need to know they won't fail. Grandpa with ATM.
You get insides about a technology: is it still growing? how fast? or nurture?
So, the pattern isn’t that unpredictable anymore.
4
Introduction to Schilling - individual creativity
An individual’s creative ability is thought to be a function of their:
● Intellectual abilities
● Knowledge
● Personality
● Motivation
● Environment
All the elements lead to creativity/can influence their creativity.
Key intellectual abilities for creativity include:
● Intelligence
● Memory
● Ability to look at problems in unconventional ways
● Ability to articulate ideas to others
Example of how intelligence + memory leads to creativity → Tesla. Photographic memory.
Knowledge on creativity can be double edged:
1. Having a lot of knowledge in an area can make you more familiar with potential
solutions, and more skilled at selecting among them
2. Too much knowledge in an area can also sometimes trap you in assumptions and
paradigms that prevent you from generating more novel solutions.
Breakthrough innovation often comes from outsiders to an industry → Elon Musk had no
background in aerospace. The rest had too much knowledge.
Personality can all facilitate creativity
- Having a high need for autonomy
- Being willing to challenge authority
1
, - High self-efficacy
Example: Georgi O’Keeffe → Things in my head that things don’t have in their head. I
decided to start anew.
Self-efficacy = a person’s belief that they can overcome all obstacles to achieve their goals.
High self-efficacy = more risk taking.
Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is very important for creativity, individuals are more likely to be creative
if they work on things they are genuinely interested in and enjoy.
Extrinsic motivation can undermine creativity.
Dean Kamen: ‘I just believe in it. It might fail, but you’ve got to try.’ He wants to make the
world a better place.
Environment
An environment that lets people be individualistic, is risk tolerant, and empowers people to
have dissenting views can empower creativity.
2
,Introduction to Schilling - Patterns of innovation
Innovation is predictable. It has patterns to make predictions:
1. Technology S-Curves of Performance
2. Technology Cycles
3. Diffusion of Innovation & Adopter Categories
S-Curves in Technology Performance
In the beginning improvement is very difficult. There is not enough information, not inputs,
and I make a lot of mistakes.
Improvement can start to accelerate → improvement gets it pay off.
Approached the limits of the technology. You solved the easy things.
Technology Cycles
Technology often flows in a cycle. Firstly, technological discontinuity will go to the era of
ferment where designs will compete for dominance.
Once the designs have emerged, we enter the era of incremental change: many firms are
competing to improve the dominant design.
Era of Ferment = beginning part of the s curves
Era of incremental change = speed improvement curve in S curve
3
, Diffusion of innovation
Many people convince other friends to adopt innovation.
The number of adopters will increase very hard.
After that, the number of new adopters will decline.
Early adopters: good leaders. Richard Branson.
Early majority: product is good and reliable. A friend wants to meet at a hot new cafe.
Late majority: they feel pressure from peers. Mother on TikTok.
Laggards: very late. They need to know they won't fail. Grandpa with ATM.
You get insides about a technology: is it still growing? how fast? or nurture?
So, the pattern isn’t that unpredictable anymore.
4
