The art of innovation

The art of innovation – how to build truly valuable solutions

I wish we talked more about innovation. Not in terms of cutting-edge new technological development – there’s arguably enough gibberish about that out there – but of true innovation: how brilliant ideas arise and how to consistently create more. Like many of the people I connect with here, innovation has been my bread and butter for the last decade. I’m a med-tech guy: my mission is to fix problems affecting people's health and lives. Together with brilliant teams, I have founded and developed three successful med-tech start-ups where innovation sat at the very core of the business. I believe there is a model for innovation and I want to share it with you.

In 2014, we successfully exited Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation to Medtronic. Sapiens developed the world's first directional brain stimulation solution and jointly we launched our product SureTune to the market. In 2017, I co-founded Sirius Medical, a surgical technology company that provides breakthrough localization technology enabling surgeons to remove tumors in soft tissue. It’s currently in commercial stage in the EU and USA. Salvia BioElectronics, the most recent enterprise, aims to help people who suffer from severe migraines. For all three companies, my team and I successfully raised funds, built a team, and developed innovative medical devices that provide solutions to pressing unmet medical needs.

Hardly any of it would have happened if we had thought of innovation in the conventional, stereotypical way. We don’t talk enough about how breakthrough innovations come into the world, and the result is that most people think of innovation as a serendipitous event. People tend to think there’s no way to come up with innovative ideas at will – they come to you through abstract forces like inspiration, chance revelations or sheer stroke of luck.

It's true that there is no formula to create breakthrough solutions. But my experience showed me there can be a structured, disciplined approach to innovation. It doesn’t need to be talked about in the language of gurus and magic formulas. It is a process we can follow to dispel many of the struggles we go through in the innovation process.

I want to start a conversation around innovation. Firstly, because when I was younger and less experienced, it would have helped a lot if someone told me these things. So: I hope this helps. And secondly, I'd love for this to be an exchange, where we can discuss common misconceptions and good practices and talk about how we see innovation, what you do differently, and what you find useful.

In the next few days, I will publish a series of posts offering insight into how my team and I think of innovation. We have created a process that informs and guides our efforts to bring solutions into the world. The gist of it is that we think of innovation as a continuous cycle of four steps.

1. Problem: Define the problem you’re trying to solve. No matter what field we’re in or how big our teams are, we innovators need to understand the problem we’re trying to solve from its core to all the nitty-gritty details around it. 

2. Solution: Only once you have studied your problem painstakingly and understand it intimately is it time to think of a conceptual solution. Think freely, without boundaries. What will your concept’s benefits be for the various stakeholders?

3. Technology: Then, look for the technology that can enable your solution. Sometimes there will be several technologies that can do the job, and you need to select one based on your criteria. Other times there will be none, and some technology development is needed.

4. Product: Bring it all home and develop a concept. The first times you go through this cycle, this may not be even an actual product. At Salvia, for example, we've gone multiple times through this cycle without making any products at all – we only conceptualized them and used those concepts to make decisions on how to move further. We ended up with the first prototypes for testing after several cycles. 

I mentioned the process is circular, so after the Product phase comes: repeat. Developing an innovative concept that will one day become a product isn’t simple, and so, since we’re all human, it’s unlikely we get it right quickly. So, after developing your first concept, you go back to the problem stage and start over, going through the stages again to develop a new, more advanced concept. And then again, until you inch closer to having a prototype for testing. Even then, any prototype or product will be ready for improvement almost as soon as it’s finished, so you’ll be able to go back to the start right away. 

It’s imperative to go through the cycle multiple times, and each time will get you closer to the perfect product. But especially early on, products will inevitably leave something to be desired. That’s what early products are – and should be – like. So, whenever you bring one into the world, it will most likely leave something to be desired. This is perfectly fine: you’ve learned a great deal and you’ll apply this knowledge when you start over from the problem stage, and the cycle begins anew.

Similarly, the cycle also begins anew each time you find yourself stuck at any stage of the cycle. If, for example, you’re struggling to get past the technology phase, where you look for technology that can help you realize your concept solution, it might be useful to step back and look at the problem again.

If this sounds like Mandarin right now, don’t worry. I look forward to sharing more info on how each stage looks like in practice, starting in the next few days. And most of all, I look forward to hearing what you think!