Value-Driven Innovation
Innovation isn’t just about creativity—it’s about delivering tangible value. For organisations seeking to differentiate, grow, and adapt, the challenge is not simply to invent, but to consistently build things that matter.
This Insight Pathway explores how businesses can turn big ideas into sustained advantage through customer empathy, iterative design, and strategic execution. It’s for innovators, product leaders, strategists, and change agents who want to lead with purpose and impact.
Included Summaries
-
Change by Design – Tim Brown (design thinking as a strategic tool)
A foundational text from the CEO of IDEO, this book shows how design thinking goes beyond aesthetics—helping businesses frame the right problems, test solutions, and align innovation with user needs. -
The Lean Startup – Eric Ries (build-measure-learn feedback loop)
Ries lays out a systematic approach for building products in environments of uncertainty. The emphasis on validated learning, MVPs, and pivoting helps organisations avoid waste and scale what works. -
Play Bigger – Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, Kevin Maney (category design and market leadership)
This book introduces the discipline of “category design”—how legendary companies create and dominate new markets. It reframes innovation as not just product development, but narrative and ecosystem building. -
Beyond Performance 2.0 – Scott Keller & Bill Schaninger (organizational health and sustainable transformation)
From McKinsey, this book explores the link between performance and health. Innovation is only sustainable when it’s rooted in healthy cultures, aligned leadership, and robust change models. -
Value Proposition Design – Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, Smith (crafting offerings customers want)
A practical workbook that helps teams design, test, and refine compelling value propositions. It builds on the Business Model Canvas and embeds customer insights into the innovation process.
Reflection & Application
Innovation is not a one-time event—it’s a system. These five books together help you build that system, from discovery to delivery, from culture to customer.
Key Takeaways:
- Change by Design anchors innovation in empathy and co-creation.
- The Lean Startup provides the tools for continuous testing and iteration.
- Play Bigger shifts the mindset from product to category creation.
- Beyond Performance 2.0 embeds innovation in organisational health.
- Value Proposition Design helps define offerings customers truly want.
Applying the Insights
To create value through innovation:
- Run a design thinking sprint to explore unmet customer needs.
- Launch MVPs using the Lean Startup framework to test assumptions early.
- Evaluate your category strategy—are you playing bigger or following others?
- Conduct a performance and health diagnostic to ensure your org can sustain change.
- Map and test value propositions before investing heavily in product development.
True innovation is not what you make—it’s what others value. Let this pathway be your guide to building products, services, and strategies that don’t just excite—but endure.
“Don’t build a better mousetrap—build a better world for mice.”