5 Innovation goals your startup should have in 2018

Startups should, by their very nature, be more innovative than traditional organisations. Purely by dint of being smaller, they can try new things much more easily than their larger counterparts. Perhaps more importantly, they can also abandon things that aren’t working.

Thing is, no matter how innovative a startup is, there’s always room for improvement, especially when it comes to innovation.

With that in mind, here are some of the innovation goals your startup should have in 2018.

Be honest about where you are

Before you can set any real innovation goals, it’s important to know how well you’re innovating right now.

That’s going to mean being honest with yourself and putting your ego aside. Do a fresh round of competitor analysis and establish whether what you’re doing is really all that different to other players in the market.

Don’t just trust your own judgment either. Find peers who you know will be honest and get their opinions too.

Having an accurate reflection of where you are now will also set you on course to implement the changes you need to for 2018.

Give everyone some free time for creativity

As anyone who’s ever been involved in a startup will tell you, time can be an incredibly scarce commodity. When you’re focused on building a world-changing product, free time feels like a luxury you can ill-afford.

Thing is, there’s evidence that free time is a vital ingredient for creativity and innovation. In fact, it goes beyond that.

A combination of boredom, distraction, and procrastination can unleash creativity and productivity. As The New York Times explains:

“In various fields including neuroscience and education, research suggests that falling into a numbed trance allows the brain to recast the outside world in ways that can be productive and creative at least as often as they are disruptive”.

Embrace new ideas

If you’re part of a startup’s founding team, it can be all too easy to get wrapped up in your original vision for the company.

As a consequence, embracing new ideas can be difficult. At times, it can feel like letting abandoning something deeply personal to you or relinquishing control of your dreams.

It’s important to let go of these fears and embrace new ideas, especially if they come from your expanded team.

If they’ve come onboard willingly, chances are they share your vision. If they’re sharing their ideas, it’s likely that they only want to help you achieve that vision and build on it.

Reward innovation

If a member of your team comes to you with a game-changing idea, it’s important that you reward them for it and incentivise innovative thinking.

At this point, it’s important to note that a pat on the back probably won’t do. A dinner is a little better, but if you really care about the idea, think about more valuable incentives, such as profit shares and added equity.

Get it right and you’ll have the best possible minds clamoring to work for your organisation. Get it wrong and your best employees could soon become your fiercest competitors.