Increasing progress potential

Can you innovate to enable Seekers get closer to their progress sought than they can today?

What we’re thinking

One of the four innovation outcomes is a proposition that offers increased progress potential.

That is to say, a proposition that enables a Seeker to get closer to their progress sought. And that might mean starting closer to their current progress origin.

WHAT WE’RE EXPLORING…

An outcome of innovation is a progress proposition that enables a Seeker to get closer to their progress sought than is currently possible

Our first innovation outcome is the one that most likely springs to mind – increasing the progress possible towards progress sought. That could be for any combination of a progress state‘s three dimensions of functional, non-functional and contextual).

Extending progress offered towards progress sought

Here’s how that looks on our conceptual progress diagram.

By increasing any combination of the progress potential/offered progress dimensions the Seeker has potential to get closer to their progress sought. And that means offering a potential improvement in well-being.

Aligning progress origins

Equally important when looking to reach progress sought – but often not addressed – is starting closer to the Seeker’s current progress origin.

If your proposition’s origin is too far to the right of the Seeker – ie the offered capabilities are insufficient – then the on-ramp may be too high. In such case the Seeker may judge their progress potential with your proposition is too low (even if you’re offering to help them reach their progress sought).

On the other hand, if your proposition’s origin is too far to the left of the Seeker’s – i.e. you’re offering too much capability – they may judge the equitable exchange hurdle as too high (what are they paying for?). Worse, if you make the proposed progress-making activities mandatory, for example as part of a process in a system, then you likely frustrate the Seeker. You’re adding no progress help (and therefore no increase in well-being). In fact, you may be contributing to the destruction of well-being!

Associated progress levers

From this discussion we can see two progress lever immediately fall out:

progress lever	discussion
extending progress offered towards progress sought	How can you help your Seeker get closer to their progress sought than they currently can? ➠ The use of drones by Ukraine has radically altered defensive (and offensive) warfare
aligning your proposition’s progress origin	How can you help your Seeker start making progress? Or remove unnecessary, to them, capability? ➠ Canva offer to help Seekers with no design experience create material (unlike, say, Adobe that caters to experienced designers)

And there lurks a powerful insight here when we combine this thinking with the knowledge that Seekers are not all exactly the same. We should look to segment Seekers on their progress sought, and less obviously on their progress origin.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to create offerings for all combinations of segments, it allows you to focus your creative efforts – it’s a progress lever.

progress lever	discussion
segmentation based on three dimensions of progress state	Not all Seekers need the same help (supplementary capability), are you clear who you want to help? ➠ Segmentation on functional, non-functional and contextual progress is powerful to get understanding;
targeting an unmet segment	Are there segments (based on progress sought/origin) that are either unmet? ➠ Blue Ocean Strategy, again using elements of the progress state dimensions, is a way of identifying unmet progress
targeting a poorly met segment	Are there segments that are poorly met? ➠ The ideas of disruptive innovation (as per Christensen) can be leveraged here. Is there a non-mainstream segment that incumbents over offer progress to, for which you have a new proposition that is cheaper and meets that segments needs (which you can then improve and chase more demanding segments)

There are additional progress levers that reveal themselves once you begin the journey of thinking about the scope of your proposition and Seekers’ progress sought and origin, including:

progress lever	discussion
chaining propositions on behalf of a Seeker	Can you may act as a front to other propositions that need chaining together to help a Seeker make best progress? ➠ Online retailers often do this, seamlessly linking payment and delivery service offerings towards the buyer
piggy-backing on existing propositions (dual use / taking advantage)	Can you use your existing proposition to help enable different progress? ➠ Swedish Busgoods use their scheduled bus service to additionally deliver goods to collection points on the bus route in the sparser populated region of Sweden
unbundling propositions to offer choice	➠ Online retailers may do this – offering choices of payment and delivery methods to Seekers
unbundling propositions to enable progress	➠ Amazon do this with their cloud services; originally unbundling their commerce platform into cloud services

Finally, you should expect a Seeker’s progress sought and progress origin to continuously evolve. Every progress attempt they make, across all areas of their life, builds new expectations (stretching their expectations of progress sought) and new competences (shifting their progress origin).

As a result, your proposition’s progress offered and assumed origin will inevitably drift out of alignment with the Seeker’s reality. If that drift goes unaddressed, your proposition becomes steadily less attractive. You’ll lose exchanges; and the ability to survive. This is the dynamic behind Drucker’s famous rallying call: innovate or die.

progress lever	discussion
“innovate or die”	Seeker’s progress sought, and origin, constantly evolve due to experiences and capabilities they gain from all the progress attempts they are involved with. ➠ unless your proposition also evolves it drifts and becomes progressively less attractive

What a rich landscape in which to systematically, and successfully, innovate!

We can also innovate to make how we progress today i