Today I would like to offer a brief tip of the hat to Larry Keeley and his team at Doblin Group, for their concept of the “Ten Types of Innovation.” Keeley and his team created a nice graphic that captures many of the different types of potential outcomes of an innovation activity. That is, innovation can result in a new product, a new service, a new business model, a new process, and so forth.

This concept is important, because when most of us think of innovation, we think of new, tangible products. In fact, much innovation work is simply the front end to new product development. Using innovation just to create new products is like using a computer only to surf the web—its power and capabilities are limited unnecessarily. What’s more, product innovation in many cases is obvious and somewhat boring, unless the goal is “disruptive,” and the team fulfills that goal.

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