6 innovation feeds you need to stay ahead of the game
Keeping up is almost as hard as keeping ahead, and knowing what to concentrate on, out of the huge amount of information available, is the hardest thing of all.
One of the tricks of the generalist is to scrape data from as many sources as possible and skim read it. Doing this will give you a flavour of what is going on around you and it’ll help you to develop ideas as you do it more often. By reading innovation feeds regularly you’ll develop your eye for what’s interesting and filter what’s not.
Where to start? On your phone. Plug a few links into your browser and refer to your own search history to find them easily. Or set up your own feed somewhere like a Flipbook magazine. This will give you one place to go and see what’s new and what your competitors might be looking at too.
Here are six innovation feeds that you will find useful:
IDEO is one of the big dogs of the ‘ideation/innovation’ world and has made the mission of Design Thinking their own. They have been around for long enough to have a huge body of useful blog content and they’ll send updates to your inbox if you opt in. For a perspective on creativity that you might not otherwise come across, this is a good place to start https://www.ideo.com/eu #ideo
ideaconnection says “Build on the Genius of Others”. This is a platform where you can post or contribute towards others peoples’ challenges. What they also do is send out newsletters and, like Ideo, have a deep well of content that might be useful as additional reading. https://www.ideaconnection.com #ideaconnection. The site features a quote from Andrew Razeghi that ‘Innovation is the only true source of sustainable advantage’” and we have to agree.
A subscription to Fast Company will keep your perspective topped up every month. But non-subscribers can still visit https://www.fastcompany.com and take a look at their frequent news updates. Possibly a bit America-centric if you happen to be in the EU, but the trends reported are useful. #fastcompany
TechCrunch is one of those sites that you could leave open in a browser and probably spend too much time in. Articles appear almost hourly, with a bias towards technology developments, but they also carry adjacent interest content (what Tim Cook says about X, Y or Z). As a way of staying up to date, this may be a good place to pick up on some macro trends. https://techcrunch.com #techcrunch
New Atlas was once known as Gizmag and we found that even our lowest parental control setting screened it out, so maybe it’s not surprising the new name came about. As soon as you open the site it’s clear what it’s all about: technology and product. It’s not always obvious what’s advertising and what’s content, but as a quick point of reference and for an overview of what tech is in the wind, it can be useful. http://newatlas.com #newatlas
room44 – what, you thought we wouldn’t include ourselves in this? As we work with clients and research innovation across market segments from AI to Packaging and Pharma to Wellbeing, we see attitudes and concepts that we find interesting. Our blog tends towards #coaching and concepts more than what’s new and visible. At room44 our mission is to help clients work to a longer time horizon than 12 months. To achieve this, we stay true to our own principles of future thinking and future proofing through innovation. You can read new content on our blog every week here www.room44.co.uk and find us on social media @room44innovates and @innovationjustified.