WisconsInnovation

Earlier this week John Rotheray posted an entry about stealth development and the increasing importance of keeping technology secrets from the competition. This increased focus on secretive innovation extends beyond keeping rivals in the dark. In some instances, companies even want their innovations to remain invisible to the consumer.

In a NY Times article Miguel Helft weaves a cautionary tale concerning website improvements. In 2006, AOL made significant changes to Netscape; a year later half of base users had abandoned the site. To modify a page slightly and confuse even a small percentage of users puts valuable web traffic numbers at risk. On the other extreme is eBay, which spent a month transforming the homepage’s background from grey to white. Currently Yahoo has undertaken a website overhaul to improve functionality for the user; it plans to roll out the changes gradually over time; the final version will bear little resemblance to the current version.

What does all of this mean for innovation? How innovative is a product if we have to secretly train users how it works? We are creatures of habit. We must perceive a clear benefit before we will invest time in modifying our behaviors to adapt to a new website or product offering. Perhaps then the role of consumer research is even more vital to product development; a better understanding of consumer needs can lead to better innovation. Ultimately as corporations we should make it our job to ensure that our innovations are intuitive and easily accepted by the end user. In most instances, a focus on good innovation will alleviate the need to sneak our changes past the consumer.