Innovation involves exploration, and you need to be aware of what is happening in your industry. In many cases, you can learn a lot from products or services that are already out there. The research will help you find some innovative ideas from other industries which could eventually fit yours.
But finding the right trends or inspiration can be a hassle unless you know where to look! At Switch Innovation, we use a selection of resources that provide us with the right industry examples. Because they present us useful innovation intelligence, we highly recommend using the following references:
Scouting ideas and spotting trends
Google publishes a variety of interesting content based on its search analysis. Most of the time it’s covering consumer behaviour analysis during some particular events, but you can find content from growth hacking to original trend reports. You can have the power of Google Search by your side!
TrendWatching – obvious right? is a website is full of trend reports that focus on the digital world. There are some free examples that you can read, such as “5 trends for 2018” to get the gist of it. If you want to read most of the reports, however, you have to buy a subscription.
This is one website which you should definitely note down after reading this. SpringWise is a community of over 20,000 innovation spotters, who are curating the most exciting global innovations. You can browse the website for free, but if you want access to a search function and some exclusive articles and reports, you will have to pay a fee.
Testing your ideas and projects
Aytm (for target market surveys and insights)
AYTM or Ask Your Target Market helps you create surveys, which are then distributed to your target audience. Interested in what DSLR owners think about your new digital photography solution? AYTM can get you the right market insights.
Usertesting (user interviews)
An even more powerful tool is User Testing. Instead of surveying (not my favourite method, to be honest) your customers, you can talk to them! This website gives you access to the target market that you are interested in.
You can see your potential clients use your product or service and have an actual conversation with them. This can give you many insights into whether or not you are going in the right direction. Or to validate if the feature you’ve been working on is something to pursue or no-one actually cares about.
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