What do you do if your software solutions lack the balance between innovation and practicality?

In my experience a sensible approach that can be applied at many organizations is splitting development teams into those applying tried and true techniques to known problems, and those creating innovation to apply to novel and emerging problems. That enables the organization to manage the risks inherent to innovation while keeping the delivery pipeline as risk free as possible and allowing for friction free innovation. An important aspect on this approach is making sure developers participate in projects in both modalities, so innovations can flow one way informing operations while operational knowledge and business needs flow the other way informing innovation.

"A problem well-stated is half solved." - Charles Kettering. I often witness people jumping into solutioning well before they understand the problem. Not only does this result in many false starts, but it also robs you of the opportunity to determine if solving the problem will result in a positive return on your investment.

Moreover, An attempt must be made to validate the solution with the end user or their representatives within your organisation. A quick prototype or wireframes or just some flow charts, tool doesn’t matter as long as it illustrates the solution in a comprehensible way.

A few items to factor in when gathering and analyzing business and technical requirements is testability. How will you know that your proposed solution has addressed the requirement? How will the business/user validate the feature/solution? Can you baseline qualify and quantify the current state? Can you measure your solution benefits against core quality attributes? This does not have to be exhaustive. You can pick a few measures. But something is better than nothing.

It is very important to have a customer centric mindset throughout the entire process of problem statement definition as well as solution definition to address the problem. Putting oneself in the shoes of the customer is key to success here. This will help define the problem statement with clarity, and coming up with a solution that is simple yet effective and adds a lot of value for the customer.

When resources are limited Innovation will be limited.When that happens, Think of deploying innovation in increments, phase-wise.

Innovation is often more expensive in the short term than practicality but more lucrative in the long run if people are willing to pay for it. This is one of the main challenges when trying to innovate, is it worth it?

Use of appropriate technology is another challenge with engineers. Most of the time they get carried away with latest technologies without giving due weightage on what's available with end user and how much can he really afford. In other words, does he really need Ferrari for driving in downtown crowded areas?

Evaluate innovation and practicality ruthlessly. Don't be afraid to challenge your own idea. Use tools like user testing to ensure your solution is both novel and usable. This might lead to tweaks: a super innovative idea might need a practicality boost, or a practical solution might need an innovation edge.

For innovation, I would prioritize its ability to create/maintain strategic differentiation to drive realized customer value, business growth, speed to market, eng lead time, channel growth, TCO reduction. For practicality, adjust based on your market and customer base. Feasibility covers more than technical. Some markets embrace innovation. Others are slow to change. Early market testing is helpful. Adjust and manage accordingly. Other considerations include skillset scarcity, resource costs, TCO. Depending on the domain, associated regulatory, data management, and licensing considerations may apply. A weighted economic cost benefit analysis may be helpful to compare between several alternatives.

Finding the sweet spot is key. Prioritize core features that solve the problem, but don't be afraid to experiment with innovative features to set yourself apart. User testing is crucial to ensure both practicality and a delightful user experience.

"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency." Bill Gates Ideally a development strategy of a solution would comprehensively define every element of the real-life innovation within a framework ahead of its implementation. Essential elements to analyze to find balance, depending on various situational factors such as: Timeline: Where an implementation model has to be implemented for each element. Delivery Model: In which situations element can be omitted altogether, or to be prioritized.

"you need to find your optimal balance between them" Finding the optimal balance is very challenging while in the middle of a project. I am unsure if there is a systemic way of determining this is going into a project. I found this balance when following the Plan, Do, Check, Act model.

Innovation also needs cultural shift in terms of mind set and skill set match to support the innovative initiation with practical feasibility.

"Additionally, losing sight of your problem ..." Losing sight of the problem is a challenge in many situations. Even in a simple conversation, people will continue to shift and redefine the problem throughout the discussion. In a software project, it is imperative to continue to come back and check your problem statement(s). "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution." We have been solving the same problem for 30 years in my industry. The "innovation" is how the problem is solved.

In addition to a clear problem statement, it is helpful to try to define what success looks like. No one on the team may have this answer at the outset. Industry benchmarking; having the ability to connect and share business amd technical gotchas and lessons learned based on similar initiatives goes a long way.

Achieving the optimal balance b/w innovation and practicality is not always easy or straightforward, and you may encounter some common pitfalls that can affect the quality and performance of your software solution. Over-innovating, for ex, can lead to a solution that is too complex, costly, or risky to develop, implement, or maintain. Under-innovating, on the other hand, can result in a software solution that is too generic or boring to attract users. Also, losing sight of your problem & solution statement can lead to a software solution that does not solve the problem or deliver the value proposition of your software solution. It is important to consider these pitfalls when striving to find the right balance b/w innovation & practicality.

It is helpful to have a documented set of high level guiding principles, or 'guiding lights' that can remind and refocus the team on core goals and objectives, as new innovations and ideas are brought to the table. These help to consistently evaluate and objectively measure each new option as you continuously seek improvement.

Understanding the why is extremely important while coming up with a solution. The why goes beyond just defining the problems and states the purpose/objective behind requiring the problem to be solved. Once the why is established, the how ( the solution) can be measured against meeting the objective. This will naturally help the innovation stay true to the purpose