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Jenni™ Idea Management Web Service Keeps You Ahead of the Competition

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Using Jenni Idea Management for Product Development Most of our clients use Jenni -- at least in part -- for developing innovative new products as well as making innovative improvements to existing products. Indeed, Jenni has been used to devise various new food products, chemicals, advertising solutions and banking products that have contributed to our clients' bottom lines. There are numerous approaches to innovative product development, from the development of all new products and services to the modification of existing products.   Innovative New Products Typically, when using idea management to develop new product ideas, you will have a specific frame in mind, for instance you may want to make new products in response to new trends in the marketplace or to appeal to a different consumer profile. In order to solicit and develop such ideas, you can run ideas campaigns (an ideas campaign is a focused idea management event in which you solicit ideas in response to a specific innovation challenge -- follow this link for more information) with innovation challenges like these: "What kinds of healthier desert products might we offer our customers?" "What kinds of products might we make that would appeal to young women?" "What kinds of financial products might appeal to students?" In addition, from time to time, it is both fun and profitable to try more speculative innovation challenges, such as these two challenges that would provide the basis for two consecutive ideas campaigns: First ideas campaign: "What new technologies might render our products obsolete overnight?" Second ideas campaign: "If technology X rendered our products obsolete, what new products might we develop?" or "What products might we make using technology X?" -- where technology X represents a threat identified Uin the first ideas campaign.   Product Improvements In order to remain competitive, you need to improve your products all of the time. Idea management is an excellent way to facilitate this. Your employees are dealing with your products on a daily basis. Your sales people are selling them and your call centre staff are handling customer complaints and questions. So, they all have ideas. Moreover, if you market consumer products, you have the added advantage that your employees are also your customers. Nevertheless, there is no law stating that only employees can participate in ideas campaigns. Indeed, Jenni makes it easy to invite customers, business partners and even the general public to participate in your idea management process and help you innovate. Product improvement ideas campaigns might be based on challenges as simple as "In what ways might we improve product X?" But it is often better to focus challenges on specific needs, such as "In what ways might we make our DVD players easier to use?" "In what ways might we improve the usability of our web application?"   Packaging A key component of many products - especially consumer products - is the packaging. An appealing box makes it more likely a consumer will select your product, rather than your competitor's, from the shop shelf. And of course, there are other issues at stake. If your products are fragile, your packaging must prevent them from being damaged in transit. If you are selling food products, you want to ensure your products remain fresh and edible as long as possible. If your packaging costs are too high, you can only benefit from lower cost alternatives that provide the benefits of your existing packaging. In addition, food, medicine and other products are normally subject to packaging laws which differ from country to country. Thus, depending on your products, markets and packaging, you might run ideas campaigns such as: "How might we make the packaging of product X more attractive?" "In what ways might we reduce the cost of packaging for product X?" "How might we make our snack foods easier to eat while on the run?" In other instances, packaging may take on a more abstract meaning. For instance: "In what ways might we re-package our consulting services to make them more appealing to SMBs [small and medium sized businesses]?" If you are selling your products in more than one country, or if you have purchased a company in an overseas market, packaging products from one country to appeal to consumers (or corporate buyers) in another country often requires innovation. Ideas campaigns are a great method for initiating that innovation. "How might we package our drinks to make them more appealing in China" (we assume you would be including Chinese people in such a campaign!) "In what ways might we repackage our life insurance products for the Russian market?"   New Uses for Existing Products This is partly a packaging and marketing issue - but it is one that offers substantial opportunities for low cost, easy to implement innovation. Very often, your existing products are being used by consumers in ways that you might not expect. Moreover, slight modifications to one of your products might give it new applications. For instance, a company that produces a spray for polishing wooden furniture learns that many of their customers are using the product to polish other surfaces such as plastic and metal. They run some ideas campaigns, first on how to modify the product's formula to make it suitable for multiple surfaces, followed by additional campaigns on marketing and packaging. The result is an all-purpose cleaning product developed at little expense, but increasing their potential market substantially. Thus it is worth running periodic ideas campaigns with challenges such as: "What wild and crazy things might customers do with product X?" Or you might ask your customers directly. Jenni allows you to do this easily. Indeed, you can even run public ideas campaigns on Facebook. "What uses do you put product X to?" If your company is a service company, there are still opportunities to repackage your services in order to expand your market. "Given our expertise, what other services might we offer our clients?" "What related services might benefit our clients?"   Continuous Innovation By using Jenni to run regular ideas campaigns for product, improvement, packaging and adaptation ideas and by involving people across the enterprise (rather than just the research and development people as is often the case), you can ensure your company keeps well ahead of the competition with new products, improved products and more appealing products. This is particularly critical in times of economic slow-down. If your customers are spending less, you want to ensure that their spending is concentrated on your products and not your competitors'. Continuous product innovation is one effective way to accomplish that. If your firm is not continually developing your products and packaging through idea management, you are in danger of being left behind by your more innovative competitors (who might already be using Jenni!). So act now! Contact us to learn more about Jenni and how it can help your firm develop more innovative products and services -- and more! Have you found this article helpful? Imagine how much more helpful we could be if you were our client!