Compassion Is The Key To Innovation

If you are looking to innovate, try looking out the window instead of staring at the white board. | Photo by Ameen Fahmy on Unsplash

In a 2013 interview, Kaaren Hanson, then vice-president of design innovation at Intuit, was quoted as saying: “fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” That has become a mantra for many in the innovation and product design space ever since. But is it that simple? How do you get the problem right? The key to innovation, for me, is finding compassion for an unmet need; finding that need requires awareness and…