The Heart of Innovation: A Field Guide for Navigating to Authentic Demand Paperback – November 7, 2023

I am not a businessman and I didn't expect to appreciate reading the book as much as I did. Whether one is running a political campaign or perhaps committed to shaping public policy, this book is also highly relevant to strategic thinkers and implementers. While I confess to being challenged to learn a whole new language that apparently evolved from the work of the four innovators, I found the book very compelling. I felt that if I could really master the concepts they articulated, I had been given an invaluable road map to achieving success. Moving towards understanding and engaging Authentic Demand is not for the faint of heart. I also enjoyed how the authors moved from seemingly complex concepts and then brought them alive with stories the lay person could understand regarding every day innovators involved in products for recreational fishermen, those who created a special gym experience for SoulCycle customers, or those trying to make a rational system for lumpers in the trucking industry. It's a rare book in that it's about the world of business and yet it also incorporates philosophy, psychology, sociology and perhaps anthropology. I don't often feel this way but I feel as though I should reread it and I also wish I could have taken a course focused on this book, if it had been written thirty years ago!

I bought this book because over the years I have done work on boards and committees for various non-profits and thought it could help me better serve both clients and donors.“There are lots of ways to not learn anything,” the authors say in chapter 11, and I agree. Whether we seek to serve people or provide them a product, we can have trouble seeing beyond our own blind spots in achieving that goal. That’s what this book is about: understanding how we can get in our own way when imagining how to identify and fill what the book calls that “authentic demand.”The Heart of Innovation uses accessible language and lots literary, philosophical and pop-culture examples to demonstrate how we can think in fresh ways to see what our innovation really is. Referencing stories of both success and failure, this book demonstrates the rewards of looking past your own biases and taking the time to ask yourself and your team what your target audience really wants.The last section of the book goes into concrete examples of ways to work effectively with a team and move your innovative idea from thought to action. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to add a new perspective to their work.

I have an MBA and work in biomedical/biotech consulting, an area not coverd in this book. BUT, the book si very relevant! I see many products fail despite a seemingly rational value proposition that is beloved by the founders of the company. This book HEART OF INNOVATION has a main thesis: Value propositions don't [usually] work. Think of the last time you walked through a Best Buy, a Target, a bookstore, and walked past 100 fine products that you didn't buy. The authors ask you focus on what product or service the customer can't NOT buy. (You will hear a year's worth of "not not" double negatives in the 4 hour audiobook). I listened to whole 200 page book in one weekend and recommended it to 5 people on Monday.

It took me a while to read this one. Not for the lack of interest in the subject matter. I love innovation and finding ways to be more in my daily life in both business and world. But this one took a lot for me to get through because it was full of data - chock full. Good info, but a lot of it that just didn't peak my interest enough to not just want to skip over parts to get to the meat of the book.What I will say is that there is a truth in the aspect of Heart of Innovation - treat your innovation like it is a living, breathing form. Give it life and then let it out into the world. Don't force it. Don't control it. See it for what it can be and allow it to grow in strength, passion, and others may become just as excited as you about it, use it, live for it.I'll recommend it as a read for a specific individual who is looking for the analysis of innovation and how to apply the data to what your idea, product or service may be to possibly make it better.