innovation-manifesto.org

Manifesto for Innovation

!!! Work in progress !!!

This is a manifesto based on conversations at minds in motion event series by Newicon

Reference the innovation kit. Newicon Innovation Kit

The Innovation Manifesto for Agile Product Development Preamble In an age where technology evolves at breakneck speed and consumer expectations are higher than ever, the old ways of product development can no longer keep pace. Traditional processes that prioritised lengthy cycles, heavy documentation, and rigid hierarchies are ill-suited for today’s dynamic landscape. To overcome the challenges of modern product development, we present the Innovation Manifesto for Agile Product Development, a doctrine that champions flexibility, collaboration, and customer-centricity. Core Principles

People Over Processes We believe that creative, empowered, and engaged individuals are the cornerstone of innovation. Process should serve people, not the other way around.
Iterative Progress Over Big Bang Launches Innovation is not a one-off event but a continuous journey. We favour quick cycles, frequent updates, and real-world testing over years-long development and massive, high-stakes rollouts.
Customer-Centricity Over Stakeholder Politics The customer is the ultimate judge of a product’s value. Decisions must be driven by real-world feedback and a deep understanding of customer needs, not internal politics or assumed wisdom.
Design over documentation Use the common language of design, summarise problems visually,
Collaboration Over Silos Cross-functional teams break down barriers. Developers, designers, marketers, and other stakeholders should work in concert, sharing perspectives to achieve common goals.
Flexibility Over Rigidity Change is inevitable. Our processes must be flexible enough to adapt to new technologies, market conditions, and customer feedback without upheaval.
Transparency Over Secrecy Open communication builds trust and enables better decision-making. Whether it’s internal communication between team members or external communication with customers, transparency should be the default.
Sustainability Over Short-term Gains While quick wins are important, we commit to the long-term health of our products, our people, and our planet. Sustainable practices in product development and business are non-negotiable.

Useful Practices Daily Stand-ups: Quick daily meetings to ensure everyone is aligned and to address roadblocks. Sprint Planning: Regular planning sessions to prioritise tasks based on customer feedback and strategic goals. Retrospectives: Post-project reviews to analyse successes, failures, and areas for improvement. Rapid prototyping Scribble and draw first Continuous Integration & Continuous Deployment: Automation to ensure quick and reliable code updates. User Research & A/B Testing: Constant validation of hypotheses through direct customer feedback and data analysis. Cross functional teams

More with less

Expect to do more with less, with reduced timelines. Think in short timescales to test fundamental assumptions - months not years.
Prefer 3-6 weeks instead of 3-6 months/years. What is challenging now will be easy in the future.
Perfection is the enemy of progress. Perfection and quality depends on release perspictive.

Design as a Common language

Use universal design language, avoid technical speak and instead focus on information flows, designs and protoypes - that everyone can contribute to. Make information visual.

Culture

Cultural changes are at the heart of innovation and rapid innovation companies

Experimental

Take more risk Prefer many smaller bets and test to failure rather than large singular ones. Pivot, iterate and be lean Outfail the competition.

Collaboration

Products and services are more integrated and streamlined than ever before and customer experience touches all aspects. from online social presence through to maintenance and support.

Open Innovation

Embrace and foster open innovation. Lessons from software show that if you are not actively encouraging and embracing open source you’ll likely be replaced by it.

Abundance, safe and growth mindset

Adopting an abundance mindset with exponential growth - it’s more likely than linear. Oppinion and collaboration and phscological safety is a must - there is no such thing as a crzy/silly idea, these spark new thoughts.

Humans first

Computer says yes! All processes and innovations and technologies start and end with humans, ensure everyone is considered.

Everyone is a designer

Encourage everyone to use design thinking methods. You don’t need to be a designer to design or be creative

Power and independence

Embrace the unknown

Expect the unexpected Encourage experiments and an experimental mindset and avoid the trap of certainty

Be Mindful of the mind

Watch brain biases

Assume its possible

Focus on the result - the improevement in the world and work backwards - technnology is easier to define when you know what it must do.

No blockers

Ideas and Mess

Embrace the mess - product lifecycle is long. Ideas -> Mess -> Brief -> Protoype -> MVP -> Beta -> Product -> Commercial