The Washington Magazine

The Washington Magazine

The Innovator’s Advantage: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve

Incentivize your team members

There’s a reason some employees love coming into work while others dread it. If you want your team to perform at their best, be sure you are incentivizing their success. Incentivize tasks that lead to results and make your staff feel like they’re contributing something valuable and necessary every day.

Get feedback from your customers and employees

Not only is it good practice to get feedback from your customers and employees, but it’s also a critical step in launching new products or initiatives. The best time to do so is when you’re creating a new product—an MVP, for example—or launching a new initiative. At that point, you can incorporate their feedback into your launch plan and create what they want without wasting resources on a product or initiative that won’t resonate with them.

Learn from your mistakes

Thomas Edison is often quoted as saying, I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. In fact, he made it his mission to make 10,000 attempts at creating a commercially viable light bulb before he finally created one that worked. If you want to be successful in business or in any pursuit for that matter, you need to realize that mistakes are an integral part of our process.

Keep track of best practices

When you create something new, you’re going to have a million ideas and not all of them will be winners. That’s where innovation comes in. It’s a process that requires vigilance—when people find success with one thing, they want more of it. With that in mind, it’s important to stay on top of what’s working and how customers use your product or service.