Inside The Innovation Lab

Innovation Inside The Innovation Lab Rajeev Sethi Brand Contributor ServiceNow BRANDVOICE Storytelling and expertise from marketers | Paid Program Jul 6, 2022, 04:51pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Rapid app development is a great way to share innovation with customers. You may know the story of David Packard and Bill Hewlett sweating away in their Palo Alto garage way back in 1939 to create their first project, the HP 200A Audio Oscillator for test engineers. And the story of John Mauchly and J.

Presper Eckert launching the 30-ton ENIAC computing system, which ran 1,000 times faster than any previous computer? That was in 1943. Or Apple introducing the first iPhone, which could download functionality—newly referred to as “apps” —back in 2007? The right program can help you innovate deliberately and efficiently. getty This kind of innovation is the benchmark of success for any business that wants to grow.

It’s about solving problems creatively to create value. And even if the project itself doesn’t generate revenue, the real value lies in the journey. Simple acts of learning and experimenting can, in turn, lead to more innovation.

Driving an innovative mindset To foster this mindset, every tech organization should maintain an innovation hub where problems are met with the ideas, creativity, and technologies that lead to solutions. Case in point: The ServiceNow Innovation Lab is focused on sharing apps we’ve created internally that deliver value on the Now Platform . The Lab focuses on quickly releasing early-stage, experimental projects to our customers without compromising the customer experience or security.

Customers can use the new features in their ServiceNow instances with their own data and provide feedback for further improvement. Our process is easy to describe, but tough to execute. We always start with the problem or issue, then experiment, learn, share, and apply.

Ideas that make it to the app stage are taken to internal teams to be implemented into our operations and tested further. These teams provide feedback for improvement. With an app approach, we can design solutions in much less time than traditional product development and iterate quickly to provide value much faster.

The apps fill white spaces and product gaps. Ideas come from employees, hackathons, and biannual innovation team sprints where we can translate an idea into an app in just two weeks. Some of the popular Innovation Lab apps include the Calendar App, Configurable Pages, Employee Center Packs, and the CEO and CIO dashboards.

Trials and tribulations One of our lab’s early successes was the QR Scan for Mobile app. It uses a smartphone’s camera to report an IT issue. Employees point the camera at a device; the app then identifies the device and prompts the employee to request a fix or replacement.

The result is quick and easy IT support from anywhere. As employees return to the workplace , many struggle to find and book conference rooms on the fly because they aren’t familiar with the office layout. So we built a conference room booking app where employees can find and book the closest conference room using their phone’s GPS.

A couple of clicks and voilà! The meeting is confirmed. For every innovation success, there are failures. One app allowed employees to request quick performance feedback from colleagues.

It was complicated to use and other similar apps were available, resulting in slow adoption. That one landed in the recycle bin. Because we are transforming right alongside our customers, we understand the importance of creating digital workflows that automate manual processes wherever possible.

The ultimate triumph is when we release an app to our customers via the Innovation Lab app store . It’s a win-win. Customers gain access to experimental projects and ideas from the lab.

They can experiment with new functionality without having to invest their own resources or wait for a product release. We solicit suggestions for further improvements. Product management uses this feedback to validate if the functionality should be integrated into a future platform release.

Experimentation is the key Tapping into emerging technologies is an important role for the Innovation team. After familiarizing ourselves with blockchain capabilities , we found a use case: authenticating ServiceNow digital certifications. Customers can now easily validate the ServiceNow training certifications of potential new hires—a critical requirement in this economy.

In this case, blockchain answered a clear customer need. Because we are transforming right alongside our customers, we understand the importance of creating digital workflows that automate manual processes wherever possible. System gaps and white spaces offer plenty of opportunity for the Innovation Lab to find those opportunities quickly and easily.

And unlike traditional product development processes, these apps let us test the water before jumping in. Along the way, we can experiment, learn, share, and apply. Once we get it right, we share these new apps with our employees and our customers.

As our Spanish colleagues like to say: Viva la innovación! Rajeev Sethi Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.