Innovation Navigation: How to Get from Idea to Reality in 90 Days

This book took me thirty years to write. I've launched innovations from Advil and USA TODAY to mobile phone applications and electric cars. Through all of these efforts, I've learned that there's only one thing that consistently works - a time-tested, battle-hardened regimen that turns your idea to reality in 90 days.

Why does this work? Well, first of all, if you're not done in 90 days, then your idea is probably already dead. Harvard Business Review looked at innovation projects over the last ten years and found that if you haven't gotten strong customer feedback and gone through a couple of prototype iterations in 90 days, then your project only has a 10 percent chance of survival. 

So speed matters, but so does the magnitude of the idea. Today, organizations desperately need breakthrough innovations to create new revenue streams or solve complex problems. Small incremental improvements won't cut it.

You need to learn how to protect your BIG IDEA from the organizational "antibodies" (often posing as the Devil's Advocate) that seem to kill innovations before they even have a chance to germinate and grow. And you've heard the "Devil's Advocate" speak before. The Devil's Advocate sounds like this: How are you going to get (insert name here) to agree to this? Who is actually going to do this work? You know your assumptions are way to aggressive, don't you? Have you passed this by Legal, Purchasing, and IS?

In this environment, you're probably wondering how you can create innovation that changes the game? How can you produce value that inspires customers to act? How can you prove your idea has merit to those people seemingly bent on destroying anything that is new, different, and special?That's where the regimen is so valuable. The regimen puts structure and process around the messy nature of innovation. You'll learn how to get everyone on board to take a journey into the unknown. You'll discover how to make change (and all innovation involves change) a welcome process rather than one that makes people nervous and scared.

You'll also learn how to build rapid prototypes to get customer feedback. You'll see that you get the greatest benefit when customers tell you what's wrong with your idea. That's right, you're going to look for why your idea doesn't work rather than go out to validate your brilliance.

But the payoff is grand. Your credibility will skyrocket when you can say, "I've seen what people do. I've observed them in their own environment. I know what they really need, and it's not what we thought."

I wrote this book because I've seen too many good ideas die or bad ideas live. More important, I wrote the book because I believe most people want to work on great ideas because they are personally fulfilling and inspirational.

It won't be an easy journey, but what worthwhile journey is easy? Just remember what Andy Warhol said, "They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." I hope this book will help you get started.