Pulp Innovation

The results from the ethnography along with the scenario planning made a big impact on the Accipiter executives. A number of people entered the meeting as skeptics and left, if not as believers, with a different perspective. What does this triumph mean for Marlow and his innovation team? Find out in the conclusion of Pulp Innovation.

After watching the video footage of interviews with maintenance engineers, designers and installers, Marlow has identified at least three areas of potential need for further investigation. He suspects there are tools and procedures that can be created to simplify the work, or a simple redesign that could make all the difference.

Just as the Accipiter innovation team starts catching their stride, an executive requests a report on their results. Having to spend time creating reports which remind executives that it will take several months to get the project off the ground takes time and focus away from the real work, and sparks questions in even the most committed team members mind. How will Marlow proceed?

Marlow approaches the CFO with a request for innovation funds expecting him to hem and haw, and say they need more evidence and a better projection of the results of the work. Instead, he is pleasantly surprised...

While forming a plan of action for a business to business firm, Marlowe faces the dilemma of figuring out who is the nominal customer. Do they take for granted that their intermediate customers know their markets, and respond to their needs, or do they reach out and understand the end consumers’ needs?

Marlowe and his team-mates sit down with an endless stack of customer satisfaction surveys and market research, however none of the documents paint the full picture they're looking for. The reports explain a lot about what existing customers think about existing products, but they don’t shed much light on their unmet needs. So the team starts to draft a proposal for ethnographic or qualitative research that will help uncover beneficial insights.

With three competing scenarios mapped out based on different market trends, Marlowe buckles down with the Accipiter team to identify the opportunities and threats among them. The next important steps towards developing new products depend on the unfolding opportunities identified in this process.

With a full plate at Accipiter Marlowe fears he has neglected his personal life to the point of no return, or is there still hope for a lonely innovation consultant?

When the crew from Marlowe Innovation meets for lunch they review their recent projects and new clients. With more requests for innovation training, they realize that many firms are discovering that they can bring in house a lot of the work they’ve outsourced to the bigger consultancies.

Scenario Planning never fails to identify one or two people who seemed promising on the surface but can’t, or won’t, extend their minds into more ambiguous situations. When Marlow and Susan discover that a member of their innovation team is uncomfortable in her position and holding the team back, they discuss how to assign the ideal role for each employee.