The new ROI: A human-centered approach to innovation
In business, meaningful growth can't happen without innovation. But innovating for innovation's sake does not accomplish much. Instead of focusing on business transformation in a silo, it is more important than ever to identify ideas that will have a positive impact on a much larger scale.
The long-held business practice has been for innovators and decision-makers to evaluate the success of their ideas based on benchmarks in revenues, market share and product development. Equally important today are how new technologies and solutions contribute to the betterment of people, communities and the planet.
So, how can you develop new products that create a positive impact?
A key way to achieve a genuine, positive impact through product design is to prioritize a deeply human-centered approach. The needs, desires, and lived experiences of your target market must be at the forefront of every stage of design, from initial ideation to long-term implementation and beyond.
This process should involve direct engagement with the target market about the problems they're encountering and the functions they need from a solution to help solve them. Members of the market should test and provide direct feedback on prototypes and pilots, ensuring product usefulness. And to ensure a product stays valuable for the long term, there must be a plan for ongoing support for users and a way for designers to gather feedback and iterate the product as needed to meet evolving needs.
To imagine what this looks like in practice, consider a health tech startup developing an AI-powered app to help patients with chronic illnesses manage their conditions and maintain independence at home. Instead of solely focusing on the AI's capabilities, their human-centered approach would involve:
Developing a deep understanding of the challenges by spending time with people with chronic illnesses, their families, and their caregivers. This offers a fuller picture of daily struggles with medication adherence, mobility limitations, feelings of isolation, or other challenges.
Co-creating real solutions by involving these individuals in brainstorming sessions to identify features that would genuinely improve their lives. Examples could be voice-activated reminders, simplified interfaces, integrated telehealth options, personalized nutrition plans, and more.
Iterative testing provides prototypes to users within the target market. Testers should have varying levels of tech literacy so they can offer valuable feedback on accessibility and ease of use.
Establishing a dedicated support team to answer and continuously monitor user data (with their consent) to identify emerging needs and refine the app's features over time.
Similar approaches are proving invaluable across other industries as well. For example, energy innovation can benefit from a deeper understanding of the specific energy needs, motivations and financial constraints of communities. This may help lead to determining a viable approach to developing a broader array of energy options that may serve and create opportunities for economic growth by supporting the ability to build for new industries and meet the growing demand for power.
AI tools can be designed with transparency and fairness in mind by actively involving user groups from many demographics in the training and testing phases to meet the needs of all users. Mobility solutions can prioritize varying needs by incorporating feedback from different target markets, so that innovations in vehicle accessibility and transportation infrastructure deliver a positive impact for those who need it most.
No matter the application, by prioritizing the human element throughout the entire process, innovation expands beyond simple products to become valuable tools and even catalysts for widespread positive change. Beyond traditional business metrics, human-centered innovation is today's new ROI, representing a key differentiator for businesses large and small.
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