They argue that innovation work often feels chaotic because traditional processes don't fit real-world messiness. Companies aren't blank slates. They have histories, failures, politics. So, instead of forcing a rigid method, they propose something else: the Innovation Board. A tool that adapts to where you actually are—not where some idealized process says you should start.
The Innovation Board isn’t a step-by-step guide. It’s a field. A game board. You move across it depending on your needs: exploring, creating, evaluating. Jumping back and forth. Testing. Learning. Changing.
Innovation isn’t a straight line. It’s a messy loop.
They aren’t just interested in making better innovation processes. They’re interested in making better innovation questions.
The real problem, they argue, isn’t lack of ideas. It’s lack of communication. Between doers—people building—and managers—people enabling. Managers want predictability. Doers want freedom. The Innovation Board gives them a shared language. A way to trust each other without crushing creativity.
It forces both sides to surface their assumptions. To check in at key moments, but otherwise to stay out of each other's way.
The book identifies three types of players:
Where you start depends on who you are. No greenfield fantasies here. No perfect blank pages. Just reality: messy, political, constrained. And that's okay.
They aren’t interested in clean design thinking diagrams. They’re interested in how design actually lives inside companies—with budgets, deadlines, office politics, and all.
Tools matter too.
Sticky notes are treated like sacred objects—not because they're colorful, but because they make ideas visible, movable, negotiable.
Time-boxing forces action instead of endless perfectionism.
User interviews aren’t about extracting answers—they’re about learning to hear what isn’t said.
None of this is magic. It's practice. Discipline. Collaboration.
At the heart of it: user-centricity. But not as a buzzword. As a commitment. Real user needs drive real innovation. The examples they give—Snapchat, Uber, Airbnb, Zappos, Dropbox—weren’t about inventing technology. They were about noticing real problems and building culturally sharp solutions.