innovation in product management

When most people say "innovation," they mean new features or a better product. This is one dimension of innovation — and not always the most important one. Understanding the full landscape changes how you think about competitive strategy.

The ten types of innovation

Doblin's Ten Types framework maps the full space of how organizations innovate. Product performance is just one quadrant.

Business model innovations change how the organization creates profit. Gillette's classic reversal — cheap handles, expensive blades — is a profit model innovation. Hilti's shift from selling power tools to subscribing to them (removing the need for customers to own and maintain equipment) is a business model innovation. No new product was invented. The value capture mechanism changed.

Network innovations leverage partnerships to create value. Target's collaboration with architect Michael Graves to produce kitchen appliances is a network innovation — it brought a different kind of credibility to a retail space. Open Innovation itself is a network innovation: using external expertise to supplement internal R&D.

Structure innovations change how talent and assets are organized. W. L. Gore's flat structure — small teams, commitments rather than management orders, all employees as shareholders after a year — is structural innovation. Zappos' Holacracy is another. These are extremely hard for competitors to copy because they require changing organizational culture, not just products.

Process innovations change how a company produces its offerings. Toyota's lean production system, which other companies spent decades trying to replicate. Zara's supply chain, which takes a sketch to shop floor within weeks while competitors take months.

Product performance is what most people mean by innovation — the quality, feature set, and capability of a product. Dyson's dual cyclone technology (15 years and 5,000+ prototypes). Corning's Gorilla Glass. The Jaipur Foot — a handmade artificial foot that allows squatting, walking barefoot, and working in wet fields, designed specifically for the active lifestyle of poor amputees in India who could not afford or use Western prostheses. This is product innovation that changed lives precisely because it was designed for a context that existing products ignored.

Product system innovations create additional value by combining products. Mozilla's browser ecosystem with developer add-ons. Oscar Mayer's Lunchables. Gillette Venus followed by compatible shaving gel, refill blades, and accessories.

Service innovations make a product easier to use or more enjoyable. Zappos' legendary customer service — empowering employees to spend hours on the phone or send flowers to solve a customer's issue. Men's Wearhouse offering lifetime pressing on suits.

Channel innovations change how you connect with customers. Nike's NikeTown flagship stores. Tesco Korea's virtual grocery store on subway platforms — QR codes on product posters that let commuters add items to their cart during their commute, delivered to their home.

Brand innovations build a value identity that transcends individual products. Virgin's brand — being different and fun — spans airlines, records, trains, and space tourism. Intel's "Intel Inside" turned a commodity component into a purchase driver for finished computers.

Customer engagement innovations change how you understand and activate customer relationships. Blizzard's World of Warcraft — understanding what drives hundreds of hours of play and user-to-user collaboration. Apple's ecosystem of devotees who participate in product launches, evangelize to others, and make upgrade decisions based on brand identity rather than feature lists.

The implication for PMs

Feature comparison matrices are useful but insufficient. When a customer asks "how are you different from your competitor?", a feature list is the weakest possible answer.

The stronger answer comes from asking: which types of innovation are we competing on? If your competitor has better product performance, can you win on service? If their channel is strong, can your network partnerships create differentiation they cannot replicate? If their business model commoditizes your feature set, do you need a profit model innovation rather than more features?

Situational competitive analysis — understanding what customers are trying to accomplish and why it matters to their business — convinces prospects that you understand market dynamics better than your competitor. Features are the supporting evidence, not the lead.

Technology Readiness Levels

When you are considering building a product that relies on emerging technology, you need to know how mature that technology actually is. Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are a measurement system used to assess maturity. Originally developed by NASA, they apply broadly.

For product decisions, TRL matters because it tells you how much technical risk you are accepting. Building on a TRL 3 technology means you are simultaneously developing the product and proving the technology — compounding risk. Building on TRL 8-9 means the technical risk is minimal; the product risk (adoption, business model, market fit) dominates.

The mistake is assuming that a technology that works in a lab will work at scale. Most product disasters that cite "the technology wasn't ready" are stories of premature commitment at TRL 4 or 5, not actual technology failures.