Innovation in 2024: How to Build Intelligent Experiences
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Successful innovation requires a balance of creativity, collaboration, and accountability
Innovation requires more than fresh ideas—it demands storytelling, frameworks, cultural alignment, and relentless attention to user needs.
Organisations can navigate future challenges by embedding artificial intelligence (AI) into interfaces, fostering a culture of experimentation, establishing unified frameworks for innovation management, and ensuring purpose-driven design to drive meaningful growth.
We attended BSI Innovation Management Conference Day 2024, exploring how best to harness the power of a systemic approach to innovation. Here are our key takeaways.
“A true problem statement gives the ammunition to drive value.
True innovation comes through iteration.”
Intelligent Interfaces: The Future of AI Integration
The future of interfaces lies in “generative UI.” Rather than treating machine learning tools as add-ons, how can we use these technologies as foundational layers that shape everything from how users navigate content to how they interact with products and services?
Generative UI: The future lies in intelligent interfaces where on-demand intelligence and adaptability are baked into every interaction.
Seamless AI Integration: AI should be layered into interfaces in ways that feel natural and intuitive. Companies like Apple are setting the standard for embedding intelligence into everyday systems.
Open-Source Momentum: The rise of platforms like LLaMA 3 and GitHub repositories from Hugging Face reflects the growing interest in collaborative AI development.
Standards: Might also be a critical way to ensure the responsible development of AI by creating patterns that lead to good growth and remove human bias.
Key action: Explore open-source AI tools and focus on creating adaptive experiences, not just static products.
Innovation in Practice: Learning from Industry Leaders
From a leading defence organisation to Channel 4, industry experts shared their approaches to managing innovation.
Defence Sector
Mission-Led Innovation: Underpinning every successful innovation journey is a clear and compelling purpose. A focused purpose is a guiding star for innovation efforts. A unifying vision aligns strategic choices and day-to-day decision-making and serves as an unwavering guidepost in times of uncertainty. This sense of direction transforms creative brainstorming into concrete action, ensuring that the ultimate goal isn’t simply to innovate for innovation’s sake but to make the world a little bit better.
Storytelling: Clear, strategic communication aligns teams and reinforces the organizational vision. Without a compelling narrative, even the best strategy can fail to inspire.
Channel 4: A Culture of Experimentation
Gut-Driven Decisions + Framework: Build a culture that embraces calculated risk while grounding innovation in a clear, leadership-endorsed framework. Align experimental initiatives directly with corporate objectives and hold teams accountable through business challenge-led projects with real accountability.
Incubator Approach: Create small, squad-based teams with dedicated budgets to encourage rapid prototyping and experimentation - ensuring innovation is systematically supported.
Collaboration and Academia: University partnerships enable access to cutting-edge, unattainable research.
E.ON: Innovating Energy Experiences
Curating Innovation: A unified framework helps align diverse innovation strands. Teams are empowered with resources to innovate confidently.
Accountability: Establishing clear accountability for innovation across all levels ensures long-term cultural integration.
Key action: Innovation in the strategy team has proved the right approach to managing ideas in the pipeline.
Striking the Right Balance: Culture, Strategy, and Metrics
A recurring theme is the tension between an organisation’s ambitions and the financial, human, and cultural resources needed to make them a reality.
Learning, not failure: Leaders affirmed that the only way forward is to create safe spaces where failure is acceptable, provided that failures generate insights that inform future decisions.
True innovation: Often involves stepping into the unknown, which can be difficult without a clear framework and north star.
Metrics Challenge: Many wrestle with measuring innovation meaningfully; linking “soft metrics” like idea generation to “hard metrics” like business outcomes is a key hurdle.
Key action: Make innovation fun. Balance organisational desires with realistic resource availability is essential for fostering innovation without burnout.
Building an Ecosystem: Culture and Collaboration
Innovation cannot thrive without the right culture. It’s about having bold ideas and fostering an environment where individuals feel empowered to share their thoughts and push boundaries.
Intergenerational perspectives: Broaden horizons with strong partnerships—e.g. academia, research labs, and strategic allies—to ensure a steady influx of fresh thinking.
Creative space: To foster a robust innovation culture and allow room for creativity, shared values, and intergenerational perspectives.
Common language: Standards and frameworks provide a common language, enabling diverse teams to work together more effectively and responsibly, particularly in complex contexts.
Embracing failure: Creating a safe space to fail and iterate leads to better outcomes and stronger teams.
Key action: Prioritise collaboration and courage to drive an innovation culture that’s inclusive and iterative.
Two Sides of the Same Coins: Design and Innovation
Attendees noted that the world’s most innovative companies often have strong design teams at their core. The subtle interplay of design and innovation helps chart a path from big ideas to tangible market solutions that resonate with customers.
Human-Centered Standards: Establishing design standards ensures responsible development, especially in the age of AI. Removing bias ensures inclusive and scalable solutions.
Design as the Foundation: Good design research rooted in empathy and a deep understanding of user needs doesn’t just guide product development—it reduces the risk of producing what one describes as “trash” solutions. Instead, it encourages organizations to create genuinely beneficial and meaningful offerings.
Direction, not design: Organisations increasingly look to designers for direction, not just nice design.
Where Design and Innovation Meet:
Design: Focused on the end-to-end experience based on human needs.
Innovation: Ensures the ideas reach the market effectively.
Key action: A well-designed innovation framework plots where people are in the process, creating a clear path to the north star of your mission.
