How do you find innovation? How do you build it? And how do you bring it to fruition?

I have long been concerned with this topic, and I promote a simple approach called demo-driven innovation. Its main points are:

• Challenge your own assumptions.
• Design around a story.
• Demo to get feedback.
• Listen to uncover.
• Enable it all.

The essence comes from the realization that the main enemies of innovation are your own assumptions. Once you accept this, exposing these assumptions becomes a priority, and showing them through demo-able stories is the most important tool you have.

I am continuously surprised at how focusing early on the stories you tell yourself and others, rather than only on the technical details, makes your ideas leaner and suppler. Over the past decade, I had the opportunity to work with dozens of people and I found that it applies to many different situations like ranging from research to engineering, and even to management.

Now, demo-driven has just received a teaser website at http://demodriven.com.

If you feel teased and want more details, feel free to contact me.