Introduction - By Gemma Fulford – Pancreatic Cancer UK

Innovation can feel overwhelming, especially when faced with countless tools, frameworks, and methodologies. Where do you even begin? Many people find themselves stuck, overanalysing options and second-guessing every decision. If you’ve ever felt like you’re navigating a maze with no map, you’re not alone.

This blog will help you cut through the noise and embrace a proven process for innovation. By learning to trust the process, you can overcome roadblocks, unleash audience insights, and develop solutions that really make a huge impact. Whether you’re just getting started or refining your approach, this guide will walk you through practical steps to navigate the often chaotic journey of innovation with confidence and clarity.

Gemma Fulford, Innovation and Insights Lead at Pancreatic Cancer describes how trusting the process will transform your projects and help you achieve breakthrough results.

Navigating the Innovation Journey: A Step-by-Step Guide to Trusting the Process

One of the first things you’ll learn when taking on an innovation role or starting up an innovation function in your organisation, is that there are thousand’s of tools and frameworks at your fingertips. But my god, where do you start?

I think pretty much everyone is told that reading the Lean Start Up is a good starting point (which I love!), we’re then all advised to follow the double diamond framework (it’s an old friend), and then when you get really lost, you may also turn to ChatGPT for help (guilty!). Nesta produced this fabulous graphic giving you a full glimpse into the ecosystem.

Whilst it may feel overwhelming to find the right tools and frameworks that work for you or your organisation, the one thing that has become my safety blanket is that once you find the golden nuggets that work, you really can trust the process.

I’m not going to lie: I struggled at first to put theory into practice. I’d overthink and spend too much time deciphering which innovation tools would work internally and help us achieve the right outcome. But having gone through it a few times now on key projects, I’m pleased to say that I’m finally feeling comfortable with trusting the process (what took you so long, I hear you say!).

The Double Diamond Framework Explained

I will lean on the trusty double diamond to explain what it feels like to be in each stage of innovating or trying something new. I’m sure some of this might feel familiar, or if you have any tips on what you’ve seen work, I’d love to chat more.

Discovery. In short, this stage is exciting but not without its hurdles; you’re right in the middle of the squiggle, working through the ups and downs of solving your challenge. To summarise this feeling, it's like setting out on a road trip without a map (not something many of us would do these days!). There are so many unknowns and you’re being swallowed up by questions about budget and staff time – to point where you find yourself repeating in your sleep… “we won’t know until we’ve gone through discovery and uncovered the insight”. The bit that makes this phase worth it, is the insight you gain from your audiences.

We recently worked with our Service Innovation team on a project to improve the reach of our support services. We ran qualitative interviews with over 40 people, and the insights greatly impacted the project. We uncovered seven core needs of our audience, such as the need for community, honesty and hope.

These needs remained a unifying thread in the project, eventually guiding how we approached key sprints. Whether through qualitative or quantitative research, you’re reminded that these insights are invaluable—your audience is at the heart of it all, making every effort worthwhile. Finally… there’s light appearing at the end of the tunnel!

Define. So, you’ve got your insight, things are starting to feel clearer. However, narrowing down to define the true problem you’re trying to solve can feel daunting—though occasionally, the answer is surprisingly obvious! You’ve got your map for the road trip and a general sense of direction, but the roads and motorways ahead are missing their signs…This is where your ‘How might we’ questions come in handy to frame your challenge. But you might still be tripping over your assumptions.

One useful step is to identify any internal historical biases you hold. By examining and removing these, you can clear the path for greater creativity. To avoid going in circles, set a deadline for making a final decision on your direction and hold yourselves accountable. Remove the need for multiple stakeholders to sign off, trust your instincts and the insights you’ve gathered, and take that leap of faith. It’s scary but now you’re motoring forward.  

Develop. Let the ideas flow! Bringing diverse perspectives into the room to ideate and develop solutions to address your audience's needs is a rare opportunity we don’t often get daily. Ideally, do this during a sprint. That focused headspace works wonders and lets you move quickly and be more creative, which is hard to do in your day-to-day and between countless daily meetings.

After voting on the ideas to move forward with, it can be tough to rein yourself in and focus on a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The excitement makes you want to tackle everything at once and there’s the internal pressure of wanting immediate results.

We recently conducted a series of experiments for our Audience Experience project, aiming to discover ways to enhance our audience's experience and foster meaningful, lifelong relationships. Though we kept the experiments small, we found through the process that we love to make things harder for ourselves. We had to remember that the experiments aimed to uncover small clues that could help us iterate.

‘Good not perfect’ became our mantra as there were moments where it sometimes felt we’d never get anything out of the door. Building a culture of experimentation is something we’re trying to improve, and it’s good for teams to cut themselves some slack, we don’t need to solve all our problems at once – it just slows you down.

But after all this, once you’ve developed your first prototype, it’s a proud moment, it then gets ripped to shreds in user testing, but that’s ok, you keep going. Finally, you come out with something you feel passionate about. But don’t get too attached. There’s still a long way to go to validate and prove viability, desirability and feasibility.

Deliver. Depending on your organisation’s structure, you may be responsible for delivering the idea – you then get swept back into the internal reality of time, budget and resources. Lifting an idea off the ground is a lot of work. Sometimes, it might not work, and you’re faced with questions about failings and how much time was spent on the project etc. This is when you pull on your battle armour, take a deep breath and explain that every learning is essential, we test, we iterate and trying something new is better than falling behind the curve.

But if something does work, embedding it in business as usual is another tricky conversation. We’ve learned through our Services project that dedicating the time and resources to take your validated ideas through to further experimentation does make a difference, and there is hope that ideas don’t get dusty on the shelf. In short, this phase is just as tough as discovery and its’s easy to fall back into the squiggle again. But…

Don’t lose faith. Trust the process, like a map, it gets you to where you need to go, and on top of this, you can keep momentum moving forward by:

Working in the open: storytelling is so important; it helps bring people along on your journey. Let them know the process you’re going through, be open that you don’t have all the answers – especially if you’re in the thick of the squiggle. Most importantly, share the insights you’re seeing from your audiences, and let them tell the story for you on the ‘why’.

And….

Don’t strive for perfect: we often let perfection get in the way. But if we learn to say ‘that’s good enough for now’ we can move so much more quickly. Read more on how to overcome perfectionism.

Build the right culture: innovation cannot thrive in an adverse culture. If your culture is fighting innovation, you will struggle to progress. Here are five ways to build a successful innovation culture.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some common challenges in the innovation process?

Common challenges:

·       Overwhelming choice of tools and frameworks
·       Resistance to change
·       Balancing innovation with day-to-day operations
·       Difficulty narrowing down insights to actionable solutions
·       Pressure to deliver results quickly without sufficient testing

There are many tools available for user research, including:

   •        Qualitative Tools: Zoom for interviews, Otter.ai or coloop.ai for transcription.

   •        Quantitative Tools: Google Forms, Typeform, SurveyMonkey or jotform

   •        Analytics Tools: Hotjar for user behaviour, Google Analytics for
         website insights.

How do I build a culture of experimentation?

 Being more experimental involves:

·       Encouraging teams to test ideas quickly and learn from failures.

·       Prioritizing small, iterative experiments over large, risky projects.

·       Celebrating learnings and progress rather than just final outcomes.

Providing tools and resources for effective testing and prototyping

We’ve never tried that before, it might work

Embedding the mantra of ‘trust the process’ is easier said than done, it feels uncomfortable and you’ll definitely come across challenges along the way. But know that whatever innovation tools or frameworks you decide to use, they are designed to help you be more creative, more agile and disrupt the everyday. And that is always better than doing nothing and following the phrase we all hear most days “we tried that before, it’ll never work”.