Isaac Asimov once said "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather, "hmm.... that's funny….". Based on a 30 year study across 300 product categories and 225 countries, the phrase might actually be "Hmmm…. that's what I thought."
A new whitepaper from Phillip Roos from GFK sums up 30 years of findings started by product guru Robert McMath. The paper deserves a deeper dive - (which will be coming in some form or another) but I'll try to share the highlights with you at least:
The Chord of Familiarity - Great innovation builds on what comes before it. This lines up with something I have long believed – there is no such thing as revolutionary innovation, just a series of incremental evolutionary innovations that at some point reaches a tipping point and appears to be revolutionary. I've used the iPhone as an example before.
