Innovation succeeds when the innovator’s “deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger.” For the first time, The Heart of Innovation unpacks the hidden challenges facing innovators as they try to uncover authentic demand – the foundation of every successful business.
With fresh case studies ranging from IBM’s entry to the Web to a single mother facing domestic violence in a slum in Kenya, this book offers a unique and proven path to enabling readers to think more clearly about innovation and become deliberate innovators.
"This book will help you unlock your blockers and inspire you to look meaningfully at how changing behavior creates results. Actionable and relatable, a worthwhile read."
“Heart of Innovation blew my mind. I''ve been involved with 100s of startups. I wish someone had traveled back in time and given me this book before my first startup. It would've saved me a lot of grief and heartache."
“If you can't do what I did and learn deliberate innovation directly from Matt and Merrick, this is the book you need."
“An insightful and thought-provoking book that highlights the importance of creating, free from internal biases, products and services that solve a problem or tension in consumer's lives."
“The Heart of Innovation” will find a place on the bookshelves of entrepreneurs everywhere who compulsively read books on innovation, hoping to learn how dressing right, shooting for the stars, and being persistent when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles will lead them to stumble into founding the next Google. It’s a book filled with good advice and compelling stories that may accidentally help hard-to-launch start-ups get unstuck.
But that’s not the goal of this entirely unique book on how to snap out of the “waking dream” of biases and behaviors that come pre-packaged in human psychology, ready to sabotage creative acts and innovation in all aspects of life. This book will attract those who would never buy a business book about start-ups. Most people, in other words. It is a book about the difference between accidental success and deliberate success. Its primary message rings as true for students, scientists, educators, and professionals from all walks of life as it does those steeped in the start-up culture of Silicon Valley because it is grounded in the science of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and his extensive network of collaborators who established the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and decision-making forty years ago. It is the science and practice of identifying and measuring authentic demand--that is, demand that, once recognized, cannot not be satisfied.
The curious logic of “not not” that occupies much of this engaging text is just one of the narratives that makes this book hard to put down. The authors masterfully weave these themes into the compelling story of the difference between accidental and deliberate innovation. In their world, accidental success is sheer luck, but deliberate innovation requires study, preparation, and repetition. It might be hard to square that mindset with the quick-hit culture of tech startups, but it is sure to appeal to most others who--seeking to unlock their full creative potential—are willing to be deliberate in achieving success in today's rapidly-changing world. A collaboration between celebrated academics, seasoned industrial innovators, and high-risk investors, The Heart of Innovation will become an indispensable guide to unlocking the power of creativity.
Richard Rashid, founder, Microsoft Research
