When someone says a product is ‘innovative’, which are they claiming — that it is new and countable, that it meets a real need, or that a user got there first?
Module 11 opens by refusing a single definition of innovation. The examinable point is that the OECD/Oslo-Manual measure, IDEO's human-centred need, and MIT's user-innovation view are three different instruments — and knowing which one you are holding is the skill.
The official definition (OECD/Eurostat Oslo Manual, 2018): innovation is “a new or improved product, service or process” that differs significantly from what came before. It is built to measure — to count innovation and sort it by type.
The human-centred definition (IDEO): innovation begins not with a product but with a person and an unmet need. One side measures innovation; the other makes it.
No single authority owns the word. The policy lens measures and rides the technology; the human-centred lens (IDEO) starts from a real person; the disciplined lens (MIT — von Hippel, Aulet) reminds us that users often innovate before any company does. Three lenses, no referee — and that mix is the point, not a weakness.
There is no one definition. Name the lens you are using — policy (measure), human-centred (need), or user/disciplined (lead users) — and your analysis sharpens.
| Lens | What it asks | Where it looks |
|---|---|---|
| Policy / Oslo Manual | Is it new or significantly improved? Can we count it? | Products, processes, patents, R&D spend |
| Human-centred / IDEO | Whose need is unmet, and does this meet it? | The person, the context, the job-to-be-done |
| User / MIT (von Hippel) | Who solved this first — and was it a user? | Lead users, modifications, workarounds |
The idea running under the whole module: the valuable act is often noticing what was already there, not inventing from nothing. Newton did not invent gravity; he noticed it. Most of science works this way — and so does most innovation.
“Innovation” sounds like invention, but the durable kind is usually discovery — seeing the unmet need, or the pattern, that was there all along.
State the OECD/Oslo-Manual definition of innovation.
How does IDEO's definition differ from the official one?
What does the MIT / von Hippel ‘user innovation’ lens add?