Digital innovation, how do you start with a digital idea?

‘How do you start with a digital idea?’ is actually the wrong question. Only when you truly understand the question at hand, when there is agreement among the stakeholders, and when digital contributes to the solution, can you get started. A digital idea is promising if it demonstrably adds value. 

There’s an interesting misconception: we usually think big when dealing with digital innovation and the issues we want to tackle. But instead of thinking bigger, thinking simpler and smaller is often a smart idea. We’ll explain why and tell you later which steps you need to take.

Why is direct building often more expensive?

As we mentioned, we almost always think big when it comes to digital innovation. Developing a new digital product after lengthy meetings and self-designed plans seems like a good idea. But if you build a digital product and later discover that your choices were based on incorrect assumptions, you’ll have to redo the design, development, and implementation process. Wasteful, of course. 

That’s why it’s often wise to make an idea smaller and simpler, test that, and move forward from that point. A good way to do this is by developing a prototype for a smaller issue within your larger problem: a simple, no-nonsense solution to test an assumption. The Design Sprint is a good example of this. In a Design Sprint, you work with a small team for a maximum of 5 days. First, you define the question. Then, you generate ideas—choosing one of them. Next, you build a prototype of a solution, which you finally test in real-time with the user group. During a Design Sprint, you learn a lot: about your assumptions, but also about the actual behavior of your user group and their needs.

How do you go from idea to prototype? 

If you want to build a prototype, like in a Design Sprint, there are several steps you need to take.

1. Define the problem - What are we solving, and for whom?
2. Sketch solutions - What are the possibilities?
3. Choose one direction - Which solution will we build as a prototype? 
4. Create a plan/storyboard - How does the user navigate your solution?
5. Build the prototype - Build it so it can be used; it doesn’t need to be complete
6. Test with users - Observe what works and what doesn’t
7. Learn from the prototype - Use the insights for the next step

Why are user insights important? 

Of course, you build a solution with the end user in mind. Reading the previous sentence, this sounds perfectly logical. However, this is not always how it works in practice. People tend to reason from their own perspective. This is precisely why it’s crucial to include actual user insights. For example, insights from colleagues who have to work with it or consumers who want to buy tickets. It can be anything. User insights provide concrete observations and challenge potential assumptions before they start costing money. 

Write down assumptions and determine which assumption is the most uncertain and most critical to the success of your idea. That’s the assumption you should test first, with the smallest possible prototype version that shows enough to learn something. A prototype doesn’t need to work like the final product. It just needs to show enough to elicit a reaction from real users in your target audience.