[Music]
you
I believe everyone here has the desire
and capacity to change the world for the
better
innovation is one way to create positive
impact in our community and beyond I’ve
had the privilege to study innovation
through a number of different lenses and
have identified some keys to successful
innovation I’ll share my insights with
you today and I’ll begin by laying some
groundwork and defining innovation
innovation as a word is used so much
that it’s nearly lost its meaning but if
you try to think of a good definition it
can be surprisingly challenging a
recently published paper titled the
dynamics on expanding spaces proposes
the definition I really like they begin
by introducing the idea of a novelty and
then they relate it to an innovation
with the following description a novelty
is something that’s new only for us or a
few other people whereas an innovation
is something that’s brand new and
changes a paradigm or the habits of an
entire population the paper goes on to
just explore how we can mathematically
model novelties and innovations and with
that they introduce the idea of the
adjacent possible and its role in
forming something new the adjacent
possible is that undiscovered area
that’s right next to only once removed
from what already exists the adjacent
possible just around the bend
is the fertile ground in which
innovation takes root let’s take a look
at the four keys I found that can help
us access it the first key is the
identification and understanding of an
unmet need I believe this is a
fundamental piece of innovation that is
commonly missed when you think of new
advancements usually you think of
creative solutions and while solutions
are a critical piece of the puzzle
oftentimes people develop these
solutions before they really understand
what problem they’re solving I refer to
these as solutions looking for a need
and they usually fall short in there
potential to be truly innovative these
are usually the nice-to-haves
or the novelties however if a solution
solves a fundamental problem for a group
of people it will profoundly affect
their lives
I consider this in innovation in 2012 I
spent a year in the West of Ireland
completing a bio innovate fellowship a
primary component of this fellowship
centered around clinical observations
and the identification of the right
unmet need that could be solved with a
commercially viable medical device our
team made up of a medical doctor a
market access specialist and a fellow
engineer spent months shadowing surgeons
speaking to patients and talking to
pretty much anyone who would engage with
us about what issues needed to be
resolved in order to improve patient
care
while this was my most intimate
experience with unmet needs they’ve
continued to crop up through virtually
all of my learnings in innovation since
then in 2011 when I was in South Africa
in a rural clinic I saw a room filled
with incubators and other hand-me-down
medical equipment and they were just
sitting there idle collecting dust
various institutions and organizations
had brought the technology to help sick
infants but unfortunately the
complexities and maintenance
requirements often rendered these
machines useless in this setting rather
a much better cheaper solution had been
adopted called kangaroo mother care if a
mother keeps an infant close to her
chest with skin-to-skin contact the
baby’s heart rate and temperature are
naturally regulated kangaroo mother care
proved to be a much more sustainable
solution that was well suited to the
rural areas of sub-saharan Africa so if
you don’t have a strong understanding of
the problem you’re solving you may end
up solving the wrong problem or
developing something that is not useful
to that population and for that reason
the unmet need should always serve as
your North Star in the innovation
process the second key I refer to as
cross-pollination
cross-pollination is the exchange of
ideas across disciplines specialties and
geographies if you take a group of
diverse people and you present them with
an unmet need and ask them to generate
solutions you can begin to see the magic
of innovation sparking this environment
creates unlikely collisions of ideas and
is a great model for cross-pollination
when I was finished in Ireland I landed
in Silicon Valley at singularity
University for those who are unfamiliar
singularity university is an educational
institution that hosts a summer program
where they challenge participants to
leverage technology and develop
solutions that positively impact a
billion people in the next 10 years
lofty goal anyway so myself and 79
others from 30 different countries
United to learn about cutting-edge
technologies and then to work across
language barriers to take on global
grand challenges like poverty health and
security singularity University led to
some of the most interesting
conversations I’ve ever had but not only
does it spawn interesting conversations
it also leads to creative solutions to
unmet needs multiple companies have
grown out of singularity with
international teams taking intriguing
approaches to solve big problems like
using 3d printing in space to facilitate
maintenance on the International Space
Station or another international team
that’s developing technology that looks
at micro RNA for early cancer
diagnostics singularity University
provided a host of opportunities for
cross-pollination but we have to
remember those opportunities are
everywhere around us what take TEDx
Bozeman for example what ideas might be
shared between us today the third key is
an understanding of the trajectory of
technological advancement
this key is instrumental for any
innovation involving technology Moore’s
law states that the number of
transistors per square inch on an
integrated circuit doubles every two
years since their invention that means
we’re advancing at an exponential rather
than linear rate in practice that can be
seen in the fact that the amount of
computing power in your cell phone is
comparable to what existed in the
supercomputers of the 80s so when you’re
coming up with your next technological
advancements it’s critical that you
think of what is happening with this
trajectory and find just the right
inflection point if you think of it like
surfing for the timing in which you
stand on the wave is crucial to your
success or if you paddle too slow or too
fast or stand up too early or too late
you won’t catch the wave but the tricky
part here is we’re on an exponential
timescale so things are advancing so
fast that you can easily miss the wave
and be leapfrogged by a new better
technology before you’re even bet done
with development it’s imperative to
innovation then that you understand the
market and technology trends as well as
this trajectory of technology to ensure
that the solutions you develop are
relevant useful and accept it so you’ve
made it to the last key and
unfortunately a lot of times this is
where innovation goes to the Graveyard
at this point if you’ve adopted all my
earlier keys you have a brilliant idea
generated to solve an unmet need paired
with a group of great diverse minds and
an understanding of the technology that
could be leveraged but that idea does
not make an impact or become an
innovation until it has been implemented
sure there’s plenty of reasons not to
follow through on an idea maybe it’s a
fear of failure a lack of resources or a
number of other self-imposed hurdles
but those can all be overcome it is the
responsibility of the innovator to bring
that idea into practice and that’s why
action is the last key so you’ve heard
the four keys and really all that’s left
to unlocking innovation is for you to
ask yourself what is it that inspires me
to impact now go act on that inspiration
and elevate the world around you thank
you
[Applause]
you
I believe everyone here has the desire
and capacity to change the world for the
better
innovation is one way to create positive
impact in our community and beyond I’ve
had the privilege to study innovation
through a number of different lenses and
have identified some keys to successful
innovation I’ll share my insights with
you today and I’ll begin by laying some
groundwork and defining innovation
innovation as a word is used so much
that it’s nearly lost its meaning but if
you try to think of a good definition it
can be surprisingly challenging a
recently published paper titled the
dynamics on expanding spaces proposes
the definition I really like they begin
by introducing the idea of a novelty and
then they relate it to an innovation
with the following description a novelty
is something that’s new only for us or a
few other people whereas an innovation
is something that’s brand new and
changes a paradigm or the habits of an
entire population the paper goes on to
just explore how we can mathematically
model novelties and innovations and with
that they introduce the idea of the
adjacent possible and its role in
forming something new the adjacent
possible is that undiscovered area
that’s right next to only once removed
from what already exists the adjacent
possible just around the bend
is the fertile ground in which
innovation takes root let’s take a look
at the four keys I found that can help
us access it the first key is the
identification and understanding of an
unmet need I believe this is a
fundamental piece of innovation that is
commonly missed when you think of new
advancements usually you think of
creative solutions and while solutions
are a critical piece of the puzzle
oftentimes people develop these
solutions before they really understand
what problem they’re solving I refer to
these as solutions looking for a need
and they usually fall short in there
potential to be truly innovative these
are usually the nice-to-haves
or the novelties however if a solution
solves a fundamental problem for a group
of people it will profoundly affect
their lives
I consider this in innovation in 2012 I
spent a year in the West of Ireland
completing a bio innovate fellowship a
primary component of this fellowship
centered around clinical observations
and the identification of the right
unmet need that could be solved with a
commercially viable medical device our
team made up of a medical doctor a
market access specialist and a fellow
engineer spent months shadowing surgeons
speaking to patients and talking to
pretty much anyone who would engage with
us about what issues needed to be
resolved in order to improve patient
care
while this was my most intimate
experience with unmet needs they’ve
continued to crop up through virtually
all of my learnings in innovation since
then in 2011 when I was in South Africa
in a rural clinic I saw a room filled
with incubators and other hand-me-down
medical equipment and they were just
sitting there idle collecting dust
various institutions and organizations
had brought the technology to help sick
infants but unfortunately the
complexities and maintenance
requirements often rendered these
machines useless in this setting rather
a much better cheaper solution had been
adopted called kangaroo mother care if a
mother keeps an infant close to her
chest with skin-to-skin contact the
baby’s heart rate and temperature are
naturally regulated kangaroo mother care
proved to be a much more sustainable
solution that was well suited to the
rural areas of sub-saharan Africa so if
you don’t have a strong understanding of
the problem you’re solving you may end
up solving the wrong problem or
developing something that is not useful
to that population and for that reason
the unmet need should always serve as
your North Star in the innovation
process the second key I refer to as
cross-pollination
cross-pollination is the exchange of
ideas across disciplines specialties and
geographies if you take a group of
diverse people and you present them with
an unmet need and ask them to generate
solutions you can begin to see the magic
of innovation sparking this environment
creates unlikely collisions of ideas and
is a great model for cross-pollination
when I was finished in Ireland I landed
in Silicon Valley at singularity
University for those who are unfamiliar
singularity university is an educational
institution that hosts a summer program
where they challenge participants to
leverage technology and develop
solutions that positively impact a
billion people in the next 10 years
lofty goal anyway so myself and 79
others from 30 different countries
United to learn about cutting-edge
technologies and then to work across
language barriers to take on global
grand challenges like poverty health and
security singularity University led to
some of the most interesting
conversations I’ve ever had but not only
does it spawn interesting conversations
it also leads to creative solutions to
unmet needs multiple companies have
grown out of singularity with
international teams taking intriguing
approaches to solve big problems like
using 3d printing in space to facilitate
maintenance on the International Space
Station or another international team
that’s developing technology that looks
at micro RNA for early cancer
diagnostics singularity University
provided a host of opportunities for
cross-pollination but we have to
remember those opportunities are
everywhere around us what take TEDx
Bozeman for example what ideas might be
shared between us today the third key is
an understanding of the trajectory of
technological advancement
this key is instrumental for any
innovation involving technology Moore’s
law states that the number of
transistors per square inch on an
integrated circuit doubles every two
years since their invention that means
we’re advancing at an exponential rather
than linear rate in practice that can be
seen in the fact that the amount of
computing power in your cell phone is
comparable to what existed in the
supercomputers of the 80s so when you’re
coming up with your next technological
advancements it’s critical that you
think of what is happening with this
trajectory and find just the right
inflection point if you think of it like
surfing for the timing in which you
stand on the wave is crucial to your
success or if you paddle too slow or too
fast or stand up too early or too late
you won’t catch the wave but the tricky
part here is we’re on an exponential
timescale so things are advancing so
fast that you can easily miss the wave
and be leapfrogged by a new better
technology before you’re even bet done
with development it’s imperative to
innovation then that you understand the
market and technology trends as well as
this trajectory of technology to ensure
that the solutions you develop are
relevant useful and accept it so you’ve
made it to the last key and
unfortunately a lot of times this is
where innovation goes to the Graveyard
at this point if you’ve adopted all my
earlier keys you have a brilliant idea
generated to solve an unmet need paired
with a group of great diverse minds and
an understanding of the technology that
could be leveraged but that idea does
not make an impact or become an
innovation until it has been implemented
sure there’s plenty of reasons not to
follow through on an idea maybe it’s a
fear of failure a lack of resources or a
number of other self-imposed hurdles
but those can all be overcome it is the
responsibility of the innovator to bring
that idea into practice and that’s why
action is the last key so you’ve heard
the four keys and really all that’s left
to unlocking innovation is for you to
ask yourself what is it that inspires me
to impact now go act on that inspiration
and elevate the world around you thank
you
[Applause]
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