By Howie Fenton, for RSA – This is the second article in a two-part series on creating a roadmap for 2019. In part one, we discussed the role of market and customer research in identifying new opportunities. In this article, we talk about thinking outside the box, because Apple founder Steve Jobs often said that customers don’t know what they want until we show them, which meant that customers could never predict they wanted an iPod, iPad, or smartphone because they did not exist before Apple created them.
If you have never seen it before, one of the best teaching tools to illustrate thinking outside the box is the “Connect 9 dots with four lines” exercise. It helps illustrate how often we are constrained in our thinking.
Often your parent company or your customers may pigeonhole the in-plant as just offering printing or mailing services. That is dangerous because that can lead to the perception that you are out-of-touch with the digital revolution. You should be aware not only of the traditional products and services you could offer, but also the next generation value-added services.
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SOURCE Rochester Software Associates
