Unlocking courage within corporate leaders to zoom out and unlock new perspective on innovation and growth challenges is where The Garage Group thrives. Most of the work we do is “in the arena” applying the customer-first innovation process against a tangible business problem. But, we also love opportunities to share our experiences to help leaders build customer-first innovation as a capability.
Earlier this month, The Garage Group teamed up with the Fashion Institute of Technology. Our President, Erin Faulk, and Growth Lead, Paul Fisher partnered with FIT’s Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing & Management Master Degree program professors to customize a crash course on practical application of the customer-first innovation process through a “train & do” learning format for immediate translation into each team’s capstone project.
Thank you to FIT, Stephan Kanlian, Brianna Picciuto, Caterina Burzio, and Corey Moran for the thought-partnership and opportunity!
3 Highlights from our FIT class that are transferable across industries and functions…
1. Embrace the Growth Mindset
As kids, we truly believe the world is our oyster. We can tackle any challenge. We can learn and grow. Yet, as adults, our mindset naturally becomes more fixed. We begin to believe there’s a limit to our intelligence, to our physical abilities. Is this really the case?
According to Carolyn Dweck in her book Mindset, we improve our mental and physical capabilities with the right mindset. It takes intention, but we can all grow.
We asked each FIT student to complete a “growth mindset” questionnaire to assess how open they are to growth across a variety of factors. There are many free surveys available online — try it! Self-awareness is critical as a transparent way to check-in on your belief system to see where you may be holding yourself back.
If we think the world is fixed and we cannot improve, then it’s tough to stay open-minded as you lead your brands, people, and businesses.
2. Fall in Love with the Problem Before Jumping to Solutions
Customer-first innovation is grounded in empathy. Understanding the challenges all stakeholders within your value chain face can take time, but is the highest priority. Have you ever been confident about the problem you are solving, only to realize you spent all your time worried about your company’s problem and not the customer’s? We talked about tips to avoid falling into that trap, too!
Identifying your customer’s problems takes patience. Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” Identifying solutions is where the excitement lies for most people.
With the FIT students, we spent a good chunk of time briefing them on Jobs-to-be-done theory. We’re big fans of it because “Jobs” helps innovators clearly articulate the complete desired outcome for the customer based on both functional and emotional drivers. The FIT students used TGG’s Job writing formula to articulate and prioritize the most critical problems available for solving across stakeholders.
3. Envision New Possibilities via Associative Thinking
After 300+ engagements with F1000 corporate teams, The Garage Group knows that people can’t wait to ideate. It makes sense. They want space to think about new, disruptive ideas to propel their brands forward. Having a clearly defined problem as a target is the start, but creating “the next great idea” also requires patience, discipline, and practice.
We closed out the evening by building divergent ideas for iconic beauty and personal care brands. We used associative thinking to collect and connect dots in service of creating a web of potential ideas that each solved the problem in different ways. Each team prioritized lead ideas, and built custom learning plans designed to pressure-test each idea with consumers the following week.
Want to Action Innovation with TGG?
The Garage Group unlocks the courage required to keep existing brands relevant and growing, taking complex, uncertain growth challenges, and driving action. Connect with us to learn more about how we help illuminate paths to growth, one step (or idea) at a time.
