Innovation workshops: Introducing Insights and Strategy into your product development

OPD have been running innovation workshops since our foundation over a decade ago. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of this process from my early days within the business and am pleased to share the success we have seen incorporating design thinking principles from product design workshops when starting work with new clients and repeat clients alike. From tackling product-specific user challenges to growing into new markets, this innovation workshop stage has proven invaluable to our clients time after time.

What is the role of Innovation Sessions in product design?

Our Innovation sessions, sometimes referred to as a Phase 0, are a series of bespoke creative, interactive brainstorming workshops completed prior to kicking off concept generation on a project. They are custom designed to facilitate new thinking around a problem, provide clarity and inspire the creation of new and innovative ideas.

We will often suggest innovation sessions when we recognise in early discussions that key aspects of a project are unclear or a client has reached a dead end with their own thinking on an issue.

The most effective Innovation sessions provide vision and clarity to teams with the challenges they are facing, through a series of interactive exercises designed to question and challenge assumptions, generate new ideas and identify opportunities for innovation.

Why do we conduct Innovation Sessions?

Innovation sessions are creative, high-energy sessions to kick-start ideation. They also enable product teams to focus their thinking on a problem. In the busy world of product development and management, having a dedicated environment in which to tackle a problem provides a welcome period of focus. Assisted by the prompts and guidance of an experienced design consultancy and facilitator, the workshops create space for everyone to provide a voice, unify their strategy, understand the problem and then focus on design direction.

Importance and objectives of Insights and Strategy in product development

Having a clear sense of the problem at hand and understanding the user’s needs is essential in product development as it sets the foundation for the entire innovation process. The primary objectives of our innovation sessions include identifying, defining and understanding the problem, user and opportunity, while encouraging ambitious thinking.

We focus on developing a deep understanding of user needs and pain points, before deeper user research and later user testing can be used to validate these findings and assumptions, which is crucial for creating user-centred products.

Establishing ground rules at the beginning of the workshops is crucial to set behavioural expectations and enhance group collaboration. It is key that everyone in the room feels able to participate freely as innovation can come from anyone and anywhere regardless of seniority or experience. Oftenthe simplest of questions can provide the spark for a new idea or provide the stimulus to question ‘why?’.

By establishing a clear direction and focus for the innovation effort, Innovation sessions provide a solid foundation for the subsequent phases of the design process. Additionally, incorporating group discussion after activities enhances participant engagement and creativity, ensuring that the team is well-prepared to create the most innovative and user-centred products.

How to facilitate an effective Phase 0

Although all workshops are tailored to the individual needs of the client or project, a non-negotiable is meeting together in person. Being free to focus and interact within a dedicated space surrounded by visual stimulus, engage with physical samples, while communicating ideas quickly and effectively without distractions ensures the best possible outcomes.

Additionally, here are some key themes and tactics that can boost the success of a session:

Take lead
Moderation is important in ensuring the most is made of the time together. OPD’s expert facilitators are well versed in ensuring everyone’s voices are heard and in bringing everyone’s creative side out. A good facilitator will also manage the time of the session and ensure all necessary topics are discussed to schedule while letting relevant discussions run if it adds to the problem solving.

Get everyone involved
Sessions are far more effective when all participants are fully engaged in the session techniques with no distractions. Often it is best to have a diverse mix of participants too enabling inputs from a variety of stakeholders from the most junior the most senior of participants. Innovations sessions are great at motivating internal teams for this reason because the participants then feel a degree of ownership over the ideas and designs moving forward.

Creative environment
Identifying and utilising a fresh and creative venue for these workshops can be impactful. A change of routine and a vibrant, inspiring environment can really influence the way the team works together. After all, to really apply design thinking requires an environment conducive to creative thinking, so access to such a space for your group can help foster its creativity and spark innovative thinking.

Get hands-on
Having tangible products for the team to interact with in person is a great way of assessing certain challenges and helps the team’s imagination in an ideation stage.

It's also helpful to bring biscuits (preferably chocolate digestives).

What are some key outcomes of the Innovation sessions?

So, now you know what an Innovation session looks like, what can you expect as a result of a workshop?

Some key outcomes include:

• Identification of opportunities for innovation: Together, the group can discover new areas that could be improved through innovation and design. These could be user pain points or technical elements, but identifying these opportunities early is important to ensuring your product will excel in the market.
• Identify gaps in knowledge: In some sessions, it may become apparent that further research into your users, market sector or technology will be necessary to advance the business to the next level
• Understand the users: Completing a deep dive into your users means that our designers can ensure that the product development responds to user and market needs to create a desirable and commercially successful product solution.
• Understand the reasons behind the design requirements: As projects move into concepting phases and beyond, you will better understand the reasons and methodologies behind the product design and development process, meaning decision making will be more efficient enabling quick progress.
• Question the specification: Part of the benefit of these innovation sessions is challenging assumptions and creating a specification that is focused on the product and its key requirements from the start. Focusing on what’s most important will keep the product development process efficient and effective.
• Design a better product: Ultimately, after the workshop exploration, the team will have an increased understanding of the market, users, products, and how these interact. Everyone on the project will then be best informed to make better strategic and design decisions thanks to the ideas generated.
• Lay the foundations for the project: Once ideas generated have been explored from many angles, a plan for the project often emerges. The team and facilitator can develop this with you and explore next steps.

ACCO Brands – Leitz: An Insights and Strategy success story

I have been working with the ACCO Brands team for over a decade, and they are one of OPD’s clients that has experienced the success of a series of Innovation Workshops. As an office products market leader, Leitz (one of ACCO’s Brands) was keen to sustain its position, monitor trends of work habits in the office and at home, and provide solutions to shifting needs and pain points for office and remote workers.

The Leitz team joined us at our Cherry Barns Studio for a structured series of 6 weekly, day-long workshops to explore new areas of product development for the short-term and long-term future. I led and facilitated the workshop groups of 6 Leitz team members across the business from engineering to marketing alongside two other designers from OPD.

A series of bespoke workshops were designed to build upon the outcomes of each prior session, while maintaining the ability to pivot and investigate further intriguing ideas as they arose.

The team was guided through several innovation techniques throughout each day, to engage the participants and stimulate creative and interactive brainstorming where all attendees contributed to the new ideas and session outputs.

Once we had concluded the workshop series, it was clear some key takeaways and ideas were destined for further development. A clear theme of wellness in the workplace was identified as a high priority, and several ideas to address this market demand were established. Following their innovation workshops, Leitz has continued to partner with OPD, notably in the design of a new personal heating range for office and remote workers.

If you have any questions on specific innovation workshop techniques or outcomes or you are interested in holding Innovation Workshops with OPD, please get in touch.