Balance Innovation Framework Overview
Written by Jonathan Morgan
Innovation fuels progress, driving our world forward and pushing us to new heights of achievement. But while the focus is often on the latest technologies as the keys to success, we often overlook a fundamental truth: innovation must solve people's problems. Technological advances can be optimized to address a problem in a new or creative way, but we must understand where people struggle to apply these technologies effectively. Innovation is judged in the hearts and minds of the people it intends to serve. It must give people new emotional and functional power over their situation. In short, innovation helps people make progress in their lives.
As someone who has spent most of the last 20 years of my career focused on innovation, I've seen firsthand the power of putting people at the center of the process. By understanding real people's needs, desires, and pain points, we can create products and experiences that truly make a difference in their lives. Whether designing smart home systems or helping medical professionals perform their work more confidently and effectively, the key is to start by studying the people we're trying to serve.
In this article, we'll explore the tenets of the Balance Innovation Framework and how it can help you identify the most promising opportunities for Meaningful Innovation. From uncovering people’s underserved needs to satisfying these needs with novel, creative, and differentiated solutions, we'll cover the essential steps that help us create transformative products and experiences. The Balance Innovation Framework was built through roughly two decades of experimentation and iteration, leading to more consistent and predictable innovative outcomes. Let’s dive in.
Balance Innovation Framework
The Balance Innovation Framework is a strategic, human-centered process that uncovers peoples' underserved and unmet needs and defines novel ways to satisfy them. Built on a foundation of Jobs to be Done, Goal-directed Design, Mental Modelling, Service Design, Design Thinking, and Lean Product, among others, the Balance Innovation Framework emphasizes the importance of developing an intimate understanding of the problem space to guide the development of solutions. This approach is a powerful tool that can help you identify the most promising opportunities for innovation.
The framework comprises three phases: Planning, The Problem Space, and The Solution Space. Each plays a unique role in helping people make progress in their lives.
01 Planning
The brief first phase of a program sets the foundation for success. It's a critical step that requires a collaborative effort from the team to align on the refined research scope and vision of success. Think of it as laying the groundwork for the rest of the program.
During this phase, we start with a workshop that draws inspiration from Jim Kalbach's JTBD Scoping Workshop. We develop theories about where we want to innovate, who we will innovate for, the processes people employ to get their job done, and any circumstances that might impact a person’s approach to getting the job done, among others. Guided by these theories and research questions, we refine our research strategy and conduct any necessary secondary research to enhance our understanding of the topics of study and to support our overarching objectives. By the end of this phase, we'll have a refined research strategy, recruitment criteria, and full-team alignment on program goals and approach.
This phase is essential because it ensures the team is well-positioned to achieve the program's objectives. It's all about establishing a solid foundation we can build upon in the coming weeks and months. With a clear vision and a well-defined approach, we're ready to tackle the challenges ahead and create something truly worthwhile.
02 The Problem Space
Phase two of our program is where the hard work begins. During this critical phase, our team dives deep into the challenges people face as they work toward achieving their objectives. This intensive 7-9 week period is about understanding how people get their jobs done, what pain points they experience, and where they find moments of delight.
To make it happen, we recruit research participants that closely match our target user and use specific types of interviews, such as Jobs Interviews* and Switch Interviews**, to uncover valuable insights. We then analyze the qualitative data we collect to identify patterns and create a series of needs statements. These statements inform an Importance vs. Satisfaction Survey that helps us identify innovation opportunities prioritized by potential impact.
The result of this phase is an initial draft of the Experience Strategy, which includes prioritized Innovation Opportunities, Experience Principles, Experience Maps, and Mindsets. These outcomes lay the foundation for the design process, ensuring we create products and services that meet users' needs. We're thrilled to share a detailed article about the Experience Strategy soon. Keep an eye out for the link!
03 The Solution Space
The third phase of our innovation process is where the magic happens. We tackle the challenge of satisfying unmet needs in ways that align with our client's capabilities and strategic business objectives.
We begin by conducting a series of internal and external ideation sessions that employ the Experience Strategy as a tool to generate meaningful ideas. This is also the perfect time to conduct a competitive assessment, ensuring our ideas and concepts stand out in meaningful ways. We seek to combine and improve ideas from ideation and formally define product and service concepts. At the end of this phase, we describe, visualize, and prioritize the products, features, and service concepts we believe will be most successful in the market. We communicate the product vision, value propositions, and high-level business, technical, and user requirements for each product, feature, or service to develop a product roadmap and guide design and engineering.
This phase is a thrilling time for us as we push ourselves to create solutions that truly matter. With our team's extensive knowledge, expertise, and creativity, we're confident that we can develop products and services that exceed expectations and help people achieve their objectives in novel and innovative ways.
As innovators, we believe the key to successful and more predictable innovation lies in putting people at the center of the process. Innovation happens when we understand people's needs, desires, and pain points and create products and experiences that make a difference in their lives. That's why I've spent much of my career focused on human-centered innovation, and we've developed the Balance Innovation Framework to guide this process.
Check out our success stories to see our process in action.
*Jobs Interviews - Jobs interviews are semi-structured interviews focusing on understanding the functional, social, and emotional jobs people are trying to get done and the circumstances that might enable or hinder their ability to get the job done.
**Switch Interviews - “Switch” interviews are a technique for understanding why someone made a purchase, focusing on the tension that led them to switch to a new solution. We deconstruct why someone ‘fired’ an old solution and ‘hired’ a new one.