The Innovation Diaries

I’ve been speaking with various people lately about how social networking has developed. Here’s one take.
First, people connected with people from their past (such as Friends Reunited or Reunion.com). That’s interesting but only for a bit until the curiosity factor wears off. There aren’t many reasons to revisit.
Secondly, people connected with people from their present [...]

Your perception of a brand is formulated through all the small interactions you have with it everyday. So how would your opinion of your local shop change if you approached to find it’s delivery van splayed across it’s own disabled parking bays? Each and every small gesture builds our relationship with a given company [...]

We’re sure there’s a commercial use in this somewhere. Time Tube tracks your favourite YouTube memes chronologically - we’ve been tracking cats, but you might want to track something more ‘useful’.
It’s a little inspiring how something like YouTube, which often feels unusable due to information overload, can become instantly fruitful just by presenting the [...]

Courtesy of our favourite new designer Anthony Burrill. Join us in the reprint waiting line here.

Friends and family are very important to us at ?What If! so every year we invite them to come hang out with us for an evening and get a better idea what the hell we really do! Last night we had 30 of our favourite people come explore our offices, learn about how we work [...]

To sell its classic Oreo cookies in China, Kraft foods realised that a ‘one size fits all’ approach wasn’t going to work.
The company reformulated the brand for Chinese tastes and also capitalised on the country’s growing appetite for milk by pushing the behaviour of having cookies with milk. Not too proud to compromise the product, [...]

One of the most exciting areas in innovation, especially for a techno-geek like myself, is the concept of disruptive innovation; ideas that are revolutionary, not evolutionary; ideas that change the basis of competition; ideas that force followers to react. Think of digital photography, the Nintendo Wii, downloadable media, hybrid cars. But disruptive innovation can only [...]

How Google fuels its Idea Factory
“You can do whatever you want as long as you track it. We have very sophisticated measurement systems at every stage of launch. We have what is called trusted testers. Then beta test, which is forever. We do these 1% launches where we float something out and measure that. We [...]

There is something intensely gratifying in discovering how much what you know and what you say is really worth. From the appreciation of colleagues and clients to the respect of friends and family, our self-worth is the venture capital of our personality. But how does that work for companies? Many brands claim coast comfortably along [...]

Over at Signal Vs. Noise they’ve got an interesting little thing on airlines making small tweaks for huge impact, which reminded me of a story we heard from Southwest Airlines …
Collecting empty cups after a landing, flight attendant Rhonda Holley noticed Southwest’s logo printed on the plastic trash bag. Two things struck her - first, [...]