IDD [Innovation Due Diligence] is built upon 3 steps, each containing a number of modules and tools that will analyze the potential of an innovation in a structured, data-driven and actionable way:
IDDwhat – Current state: Focuses on critically and structurally analyzing and establishing the current state of the innovation, in a way that is understandable and communicable internally and externally. This will provide the foundation to enable efficient market analyzes and hypothesis testing.
IDDwhere – Target market selection: Build hypotheses on target markets, and then test these by structurally interviewing validators to enable target market selection based on real market insights.
IDDhow – Commercialization strategy light: Critically analyze the market[s] selected in IDDwhere to form an initial understanding of if, why and how the product or service could be commercialized profitably in the future
This learning process should be viewed as a thinktank of methods and toolboxes for early innovations, where we present our core methodology for testing the potential of new ideas. We recommend you to use our method and modules as a structured approach on a real-life case you’re working on. The maturity level, degree of prior knowledge and amount of already gathered market insights will vary between cases, but we recommend you all to follow the structure provided but put in more or less effort where you find gaps or strongholds in your existing innovation analysis.
IDD is built upon years of experiences of failures and successes as well as collaborations with many other innovation actors globally.
Many of the key problems we’ve seen could have been avoided by doing a due diligence on the innovation, the customers or the market players. The IDD-process can, of course, not account for every possible source of failure but the canvas laid out in this learning process will significantly mitigate the risk.
Not knowing the benefits valued by customers – but still investing money in development
Missing the key requirements to be a eligible choice – some things are hygiene factors
Not analyzing competitor games, solutions or trends – going blindfolded into war
Not understanding the value chain – having a great product but no means of profitably selling it
Not understanding your market’s size and dynamics – The cake might be smaller than you thought
Over-developing – the market changes while you invest money in ‘the perfect solution’
The results from the full IDD, or the different steps, can be used in a variety of innovation contexts depending on the situation and need. Regardless if you’re a researcher, a research institution, a company or a private inventor.