In the day-to-day reality of most companies, the same pattern repeats: we jump straight into solutions. We’re experts, we’re doers, and we think we already know our customers. But real innovation doesn’t emerge from quick execution, it emerges from honest questioning, discarding assumptions, and reflecting long before anything is built.
Misunderstanding User Needs And What That Has to Do With Methodology
Of course, there are grey areas. Some breakthrough inventions changed the market without people explicitly asking for them. In this context, the well-known Henry Ford quote often appears: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Many use this as an argument against structured methodology, against exploring the problem space, and in favor of gut instinct. But that’s a misunderstanding. People rarely articulate the solution they need. They describe symptoms, not root causes. “Faster horses” wasn’t a product idea, it reflected a problem: long travel times, high costs, reliance on animals, limited mobility, and restricted freedom.
Viewed through a modern lens, this reflects exactly what innovation methodology teaches. We don’t ask closed questions like, “Do you want this product – yes or no?” We listen, interpret, and question. We combine knowledge, past experiences, and market signals to form initial hypotheses – not as answers, but as starting points. Then we engage with users, not to read hypotheses aloud, but to validate or invalidate them subtly. That is the real craft: listening, interpreting, staying self-critical, and letting go of assumptions when reality tells a different story. This is the foundation of the mindset we need.
Why Innovation Can’t Be Mandated From the Outside
A look at my other professional world – psychological coaching – makes this clear. Many clients are impressively informed: inner child, patterns, beliefs. But cognitive insight is not transformation. Knowing the problem is not solving it. Often, the connection between cognition and emotion is missing. We rationalize, but we don’t feel. And when change doesn’t happen, people often assume the methods isn’t working, even though it’s only the starting point. In this context, “feeling” means becoming aware of the emotional and somatic impact of a pattern – the moment when insight becomes embodied, tangible in both body and emotion.
The same applies to organizations. A new mindset doesn’t emerge from one-off workshops, templates, or tools. These are starting points, sources of inspiration, and structure. But the mindset grows through repetition, reflection, openness, and internalization. Companies often have an “organizational immune system,” naturally resisting change. Innovation can feel like a colorful foreign object that doesn’t fit existing routines, KPIs, or decision-making logics. For innovation coaches and methodologists, guiding this process can be draining, but helping people internalize this mindset is worth the effort.
A colleague once said in one of my problem-space discovery workshops: “It’s driving me crazy. Why should I talk about users and problems again when I already know what we need to build?”
Some time later, he returned: “Now I finally understand what the problem space is and why it’s so important. Please help me embed this in my team.” What changed? Clarity around the problem creates freedom and openness that goes beyond intellectual understanding. The challenge stops being abstract and becomes felt. Real user stories, reactions, and friction points turn assumptions into lived experience. Solutions almost shape themselves when the “why” is crystal clear. The process becomes easier, more creative, more logical and more enjoyable. But this requires what many avoid: questioning, listening, discarding, and iterating.
What This Means in Practice
Dive deeper into the problem space
Before designing, building, or deciding: What is the real problem? Why does it exist? Is it a root cause or just a symptom? Tools like problem hypotheses, short interviews, or the 5 Whys (structured ways to uncover root causes) help reveal underlying issues.
Make early ideas tangible – prototyping as a constant companion
From rough sketches to functional models, prototypes allow teams to test direction within days. This saves resources and prevents costly misalignment.
Understand user needs and experiences
Innovation doesn’t end with the product. Business models and experience touchpoints matter. Do customers want to buy, subscribe, rent, pay-per-use, or access specific features? These are core, not “marketing later,” questions.
Create spaces for real discussion
Open, facilitated spaces – offline or online – surface assumptions and uncertainties. Whether a guided workshop, digital whiteboard, or online community, these spaces reveal insights that standard meetings never would and prevent major missteps.
Use feedback as a compass
Not polite check-ins, but consistent feedback loops. Input from users and internal experts (service, sales, engineering, operations) shows where friction or unexpected potential lies.
Innovation must become part of the culture
A workshop is a start, not a “now we do innovation” switch. Mindset emerges among those who make daily decisions: developers, product owners, project leads, strategists. It grows through repeated practice. The more teams do this, the more natural it becomes.
Fail early, save resources
Critics often say, “Innovation? That’s just colorful work.” In reality, methodology makes decisions tougher, clearer, and verifiable much earlier. It reveals when we’re heading full speed toward a wall and allows us to let go of projects early, saving costly corrections later.
Innovation isn’t a calendar slot or a game with colorful Post-its. It’s a mindset – a fundamental shift in how we think and work. It encourages us to look deeper, ask more honestly, and build better. And in the end, innovation always comes down to one thing: people.
