How to Build a Culture of Service Innovation to Drive Growth

Are you looking to elevate your business through service innovation? In this episode of Predictable B2B Success, host Vinay Koshy delves into the world of service innovation with guest Shaun McAndrew. Discover how Shaun, an expert in service innovation, has been transforming organizations by cultivating a culture of innovation.

From her journey from the Navy to becoming a business development influencer, Shaun’s insights on fostering innovation within businesses through processes and leadership support are invaluable. The episode sheds light on the critical role of organizational culture in driving service innovation, emphasizing the need for CEOs to invest in creating a culture of innovation. Get ready to explore the necessity of cross-functional teams and the shift towards focusing on “jobs to be done” perspectives. Tune in to learn how to build a culture of service innovation and take your business to new heights!

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About Shaun McAndrew

Shaun McAndrew’s journey started with a chance encounter on the golf course, where she met the managing partner of a service design group. This meeting led to an internship opportunity with the company looking to expand its business development team. Shaun found the work interesting and challenging, and she quickly agreed with the company’s point of view. This experience marked the beginning of his career transition from the Navy to the corporate world.

Building a Culture of Innovation: A Guide to Service Innovation in B2B

In a competitive landscape, businesses need to innovate continually, not only in their products but also in their services. In a recent episode of the Predictable B2B Success podcast, host Vinay Koshy and guest Shaun McAndrew, a leader in service design and innovation, delve into the strategies and mindset shifts necessary for successful service innovation in a business-to-business (B2B) context.

From leveraging prototypes to understanding the voice of the customer, the conversation provides valuable insights into building a culture of innovation focused on service offerings. Let’s unpack the key takeaways from the episode and discover how businesses can embrace service innovation to drive growth and success.

Prioritizing Service Innovation

Vinay Koshy kicks off the episode by emphasizing the significance of service innovation, citing statistics highlighting how companies prioritizing innovation grow at higher rates. The majority of CEOs also consider business innovation a top priority. This sets the stage for a deep dive into service innovation and its critical role in B2B success.

Cultivating Innovation Within Businesses

Shaun McAndrew, who transitioned from the Navy to business development, emphasizes the importance of cultivating innovation within businesses. She describes his strength as “learning” and underscores the need for processes and leadership support to drive innovation. This sets the tone for a conversation focusing on how to build a culture of innovation from within an organization.

Shifting Mindsets: Focusing on “Jobs to Be Done”

Shaun McAndrew and Vinay Koshy discuss the limitations of using personas in a B2B setting and advocate focusing on “jobs to be done” as a better approach for developing innovative ideas and offerings. The conversation underscores the necessity of cross-functional teams in shifting mindsets towards focusing on “jobs to be done” perspectives. This approach prioritizes understanding and addressing customer needs and sets the stage for successful service innovation.

Understanding the Voice of the Customer

The episode delves deep into understanding the “voice of the customer” to identify the jobs to be done. Shaun McAndrew outlines the importance of involving different teams within an organization, such as sales, marketing, customer success, and technical support, to provide varying perspectives on the voice of the customer. This emphasizes the need for a customer-centric approach to product and service innovation, highlighting the importance of empathy and understanding the customer’s perspective.

From Product-Centric to Customer-Centric Innovation

Shaun McAndrew critiques the typical product development process for being product-centric and stresses the need to involve the voice of the customer in creating innovative solutions. By incorporating the “voice of the customer,” businesses can develop offerings that align with customer needs and deliver superior value. By shifting from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach, organizations can truly differentiate themselves through service innovation in a B2B context.

Overcoming Organizational Challenges

The conversation addresses challenges within organizations, such as siloed innovation and delegating responsibility for innovation. Shaun McAndrew offers solutions, including a workshop-based approach to bring about organizational change and support service innovation. The experiential workshop involves case studies and self-evaluation to help individuals recognize personal and business-related opportunities and challenges. By addressing these challenges head-on, businesses can create an environment conducive to fostering service innovation.

Derisking Decisions and Crafting Value Propositions

Shaun McAndrew discusses the twofold picture of the decision-making process at the executive level, emphasizing the importance of derisking decisions before heavy investments. She highlights the significance of storytelling in business development and shaping the value proposition to create strong customer connections, especially in a B2B context. By carefully derisking decisions and crafting compelling value propositions, organizations can instill confidence in their service innovations and drive adoption among their B2B clientele.

Visualizing the Customer Experience

The process of developing a service innovation is visualized as a graphical representation resembling a storyboard to demonstrate the desired customer experience within the business model. By visualizing the customer experience, businesses can better understand their clients’ journey, enabling them to tailor their service innovations accordingly. This approach allows organizations to create offerings that align seamlessly with their client’s needs and expectations.

Implementing Living Labs for Iterative Testing

After completing the workshop, businesses are presented with the choice of implementing the roadmap themselves or opting for a living lab process where step-by-step support is offered for implementation and testing with early adopters. Shaun McAndrew emphasizes the iterative process of testing with customers and the cultural shift required from the traditional approach of perfecting a product before release. The living lab concept is a tested model for commercial launch, aligning with the agile approach favored in modern business innovation.

Adapting to Regional Realities

Shaun McAndrew underscores the significance of considering regional realities and cultural differences. She advises businesses to modify or adapt their offers to fit different regions and test them before full deployment. By adapting services to fit regional nuances, companies can ensure their offerings genuinely resonate with their B2B clients across various markets. This flexible approach enables organizations to penetrate new markets with tailored service innovations.

Embracing Simplicity and Essential Elements

Vinay Koshy mentions the challenge of simplicity in developing minimum viable services or products, and Shaun McAndrew discusses the difficulty organizations and development teams face in maintaining simplicity amidst excitement. The need for a stop-take to pare down to the most essential elements is acknowledged. By embracing simplicity and focusing on the most vital elements, businesses can avoid over-engineered service offerings and deliver streamlined, effective solutions to their B2B customers.

Key Takeaway: Building a Culture of Service Innovation

The key takeaway from the episode is the importance of building a culture of service innovation within B2B organizations. By shifting mindsets to focus on “jobs to be done,” understanding the voice of the customer, and embracing customer-centric innovation, businesses can unlock new avenues for growth and differentiation. 

Overcoming organizational challenges, derisking decisions through compelling storytelling, and visualizing the customer experience are crucial steps in this journey. Implementing living labs for iterative testing and adapting to regional realities ensure that service innovation is effective and tailored to the specific needs of B2B clients across diverse markets. 

Businesses can now deliver impactful service offerings that genuinely resonate with their B2B clientele by embracing simplicity and essential elements.

In conclusion, the episode provides invaluable insights and strategies for nurturing a culture of service innovation within B2B organizations. By incorporating these principles, businesses can foster an environment that promotes creativity, customer-centricity, and continuous improvement, ultimately driving success and growth in the ever-evolving B2B landscape.

Fostering Service Innovation in B2B: Insights from Shaun McAndrew

Importance of Service Innovation:

Shaun McAndrew insightfully discusses the pivotal role of service innovation in B2B contexts. Using compelling statistics, Shaun emphasizes how companies prioritizing innovation have witnessed remarkable growth rates. 

Actionable takeaway: Embrace innovation as a cornerstone of your business strategy and leverage it as a catalyst for growth and sustained success.

Organizational Culture for Innovation:

One key theme that emerges from the conversation is the vital role of organizational culture in fostering innovation. Shaun McAndrew underscores the importance of CEOs’ vision and investment in creating such a culture. 

Actionable takeaway: Actively foster a culture that encourages and rewards innovation, starting from the top leadership level and permeating the entire organization.

Shifting Mindsets towards “Jobs to be Done”:

McAndrew raises the crucial point of shifting mindsets towards focusing on “jobs to be done” perspectives for innovation in B2B. Replacing the limitations of personas with a focus on “jobs to be done” is a more effective approach for creating innovative ideas and offerings. 

Actionable takeaway: Encourage cross-functional teams to adopt a “jobs to be done” perspective, promoting a deeper understanding of customer needs and driving impactful innovation.

Understanding the Voice of the Customer:

Shaun McAndrew emphasizes the significance of understanding the “voice of the customer” to identify the jobs to be done. By involving different teams within the organization, such as sales, marketing, customer success, and technical support, businesses can gain diverse perspectives on the voice of the customer. 

Actionable takeaway: Delve deep into understanding the “voice of the customer” by involving various teams within the organization to gather comprehensive insights that drive customer-centric innovation.

Empathy and Customer-Centric Approach:

Shaun advocates for a customer-centric approach to product and service innovation, emphasizing empathy and understanding the customer’s perspective. This shift from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach ensures that the customer’s voice is pivotal in creating innovative solutions. 

Actionable takeaway: Cultivate a deep sense of empathy and prioritize a customer-centric approach to innovation, ensuring that customer needs remain central to all innovation efforts.

Challenges within Organizations and Solutions:

McAndrew addresses internal organizational challenges, such as siloed innovation and delegating responsibility for innovation. She provides solutions, such as workshop-based approaches, to facilitate organizational change and support service innovation. 

Actionable takeaway: Identify and address internal challenges by implementing workshop-based approaches that drive organizational change and support innovation initiatives.

Derisking Decisions and Value Proposition:

Shaun McAndrew illuminates the importance of derisking decisions before significant investments. Additionally, she underscores the significance of storytelling in business development and how it shapes the value proposition and customer connections, especially in a B2B context. 

Actionable takeaway: Prioritize the derisking of decisions and invest in crafting compelling narratives that portray the value proposition effectively, driving customer connections within a B2B context.

Visualizing the Customer Experience:

The guest highlights the process of visualizing the customer experience, emphasizing the need for a straightforward narrative to explain customer desired outcomes and business benefits. McAndrew advocates for graphical representations resembling a storyboard to demonstrate the desired customer experience within the business model. 

Actionable takeaway: Visualize the customer experience and leverage graphical representations to showcase the desired customer journey within the business model vividly.

Implementing Living Labs and Iterative Testing:

McAndrew underscores the iterative process of testing with customers and the cultural shift required to abandon the traditional approach of perfecting a product before release. She suggests a living lab as a tested model for commercial launch. 

Actionable takeaway: Embrace living labs for iterative testing, ensuring a customer-centered approach to product development and a cultural shift from perfecting products before release towards iterative testing and improvement.

Adapting Offers to Regional Realities:

Shaun McAndrew emphasizes the significance of considering regional realities and cultural differences, advising businesses to modify or adapt their offers to fit different regions and test them before full deployment. 

Actionable takeaway: Tailor and adapt offers to fit diverse regional realities, ensuring relevance and effectiveness, and test them thoroughly before widespread deployment.

Maintaining Simplicity for MVPs:

Vinay Koshy and Shaun McAndrew discuss the challenge of maintaining simplicity when developing minimum viable services or products. The conversation delves into the difficulty organizations face in maintaining simplicity amidst excitement, advocating for a stopping point to pare down to the most essential elements. 

Actionable takeaway: Embrace simplicity and establish stopping points to ensure minimum viable services or products remain focused and effective, even amid the excitement of development.

Conclusion:

Shaun McAndrew’s insights into service innovation in the B2B realm offer a wealth of actionable takeaways for businesses seeking to foster innovation and drive growth. By embracing a customer-centric approach, fostering a culture of innovation, and leveraging a “jobs to be done” perspective, businesses can position themselves for sustained success and meaningful impact in the rapidly evolving B2B landscape.

Some areas we explore in this episode include: 

• Importance of using prototypes instead of MVPs for product testing
• Distinguishing between MVPs for product offerings and prototypes for services or solutions
• Directed/guided ideation and the sharing of ideas within a team for innovation
• Sponsor and leadership commitment to service opportunities
• Organizational culture and leadership support for fostering innovation
• Shifting mindsets towards focusing on “jobs to be done” perspectives
• Customer-centric approach to product and service innovation
• Workshop-based approach to bring about organizational change and support service innovation
• Significance of storytelling and value proposition in B2B business development
• Challenges and solutions in developing and testing minimum viable services or products
• And much, much more…

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Related links and resources

Connect with Shaun McAndrew

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