What is proactive discovery?

proactive discovery (noun)

Work undertaken to identify the many possibilities an invention might offer.

Accelerometer chips are now ubiquitous. The speed and orientation sensors are used to detect portrait or landscape mode in cellphones, to add motion-sensing capabilities to video games, and even to sense seismic activity. Yet the company that developed these chips initially focused on uses in the automotive industry, such as deploying airbags.

An innovation’s true potential is often unveiled over time. Companies need to build their innovation management systems with this in mind, according to MIT researchers Wenjing Lyu and Neil Thompson and Babson College professor Gina Colarelli O’Connor.

Writing in MIT Sloan Management Review, the researchers examine the value of taking early action to identify applications, use cases, and markets that might be created by a new advancement. Actions can include outreach to thought leaders and engagement with experts from other industries.

“Unanticipated use cases emerge and, in many instances, are far afield from those that were originally imagined, perhaps leveraging different characteristics of the technology or different business models,” they write.

Proactive discovery can also convince internal decision makers that an opportunity is worth pursuing, and enhance the impact of a technological breakthrough by broadening the number of industries and markets it can influence.

Unleash the unexpected for radical innovation