In article above, there's a useful table classifying the types of innovation and skills level needed. Also learnt of the term "skunk works" for the first time!

Big Innovations, Small Innovation, Shared Successes! 

<a href="https://www.flowresearchcollective.com/blog/skunk-works" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The origin of Skunk Works explained</a>

Novel Workings- Radical Results

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		Summary.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
		Innovation is, at its core, about solving problems — and there are as many ways to innovate as there are different types of problems to solve. Just like we wouldn’t rely on a single marketing tactic for the life of an organization, or a single source of financing, we need...<button dir="ltr">more</button>
	</div>One of the best innovation stories I’ve ever heard came to me from a senior executive at a leading tech firm. Apparently, his company had won a million-dollar contract to design a sensor that could detect pollutants at very small concentrations underwater. It was an unusually complex problem, so the firm set up a team of crack microchip designers, and they started putting their heads together.About 45 minutes into their first working session, the marine biologist assigned to their team walked in with a bag of clams and set them on the table. Seeing the confused looks of the chip designers, he explained that clams can detect pollutants at just a few parts per million, and when that happens, they open their shells.As it turned out, they didn’t really need a fancy chip to detect pollutants —&nbsp;just a simple one that could alert the system to clams opening their shells. “They saved $999,000 and ate the clams for dinner,” the executive told me.That, in essence, is the value of <a href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2013/4-ways-open-innovation-can-drive-your-business-forward/" dir="ltr">open innovation</a>. When you have a really tough problem, it often helps to expand skill domains beyond specialists in a single field. Many believe it is just these kinds of unlikely combinations that are key to coming up with&nbsp;breakthroughs. In fact, a <a href="https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/htm/papers/Science-2013-Uzzi-468-72.pdf" dir="ltr">study analyzing 17.9 million scientific papers</a>&nbsp;found that the most highly cited work tended to be mostly rooted within a traditional field, with just a smidgen of insight taken from some unconventional place.But what if&nbsp;the task had been&nbsp;simply to make a chip that was 30% more efficient? In that case, a marine biologist dropping clams on the table would have been&nbsp;nothing more than a distraction. Or, what if&nbsp;the company needed to identify a new business model? Or what if —&nbsp;as is the case today —&nbsp;<a href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2016/moores-law-will-soon-end-but-progress-doesnt-have-to/" dir="ltr">current chip technology is nearing its theoretical limits</a>, and a completely new architecture needs to be dreamed up?In researching my book, <a href="http://amzn.to/2qAA3Jq" dir="ltr">Mapping Innovation</a>, I found that every innovation strategy fails eventually, because innovation is, at its core, <a href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2017/dont-look-for-a-great-idea-look-for-a-good-problem/" dir="ltr">about solving problems</a>&nbsp;— and there are as many ways to innovate as there are types of problems to solve. There is no <a href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2016/there-is-no-one-true-path-to-innovation/" dir="ltr">one “true” path to innovation</a>.Yet all too often, organizations act as if there is. They lock themselves into one type of strategy and say, “This is how we innovate.” It works for a while, but eventually it catches up with them. They find themselves locked into a set of solutions that don’t fit the problems they need to solve. Essentially, they become <a href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2017/this-is-how-your-business-will-be-disrupted/" dir="ltr">square-peg companies in a round-hole world</a> and lose relevance.We need to start treating innovation like other business disciplines —&nbsp;as a set of tools that are designed to accomplish specific objectives. Just as&nbsp;we wouldn’t rely on a single marketing tactic or a single source of financing for the entire life of an organization, we need to build up a portfolio of innovation strategies designed for specific tasks.It was with this in mind that I created the Innovation Matrix to help leaders identify the right type of strategy to solve a problem, by asking two questions: How well can&nbsp;we define the problem? and How well can we define the skill domain(s) needed to solve it?<img src="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES.png" srcset="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES-300x176.png 300w, https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES-1024x600.png 1024w, https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES-383x224.png 383w, https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES-500x293.png 500w, https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES-700x410.png 700w, https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES-850x498.png 850w, https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES-1200x703.png 1200w, https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2017/06/W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES.png 1401w" alt="W170608_SATELL_FOURTYPES" width="446" height="261">Sustaining innovation. Most innovation happens here, because most of the time we are seeking to get better at what we’re already doing. We want to improve existing capabilities in existing markets, and we have a pretty clear idea of what problems need to be solved and what skill domains are required to solve them.For these types of problems, conventional strategies like strategic roadmapping, traditional R&amp;D labs, and using acquisitions to bring new resources and skill sets into the organization are usually effective. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking" dir="ltr">Design thinking</a> methods, such as those championed by <a href="https://www.ideo.com/people/david-kelley" dir="ltr">David Kelley</a>, founder of the design firm <a href="https://www.ideo.com/" dir="ltr">IDEO</a> and <a href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/" dir="ltr">Stanford’s d.school</a>, can also be enormously helpful if both the problem and the skills needed to solve it are well understood.Breakthrough innovation.&nbsp;Sometimes, as was the case with the example of detecting pollutants underwater, we run into a well-defined problem that’s just devilishly hard to solve. In cases like these, we need to explore unconventional skill domains, such as adding a marine biologist to a team of chip designers. <a href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2013/4-ways-open-innovation-can-drive-your-business-forward/" dir="ltr">Open innovation</a> strategies can be highly effective in this regard, because they help to expose the problem to diverse skill domains.As <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn" dir="ltr">Thomas Kuhn</a> explained in the <a href="http://amzn.to/2rUsZLz" dir="ltr">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</a>, we advance in specific fields by creating paradigms, which sometimes can make it very difficult to solve a problem within the domain in which it arose — but the problem may be resolved fairly easily within the paradigm of an adjacent domain.<div>
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One of the best innovation stories I’ve ever heard came to me from a senior executive at a leading tech firm. Apparently, his company had won a million-dollar contract to design a sensor that could detect pollutants at very small concentrations underwater. It was an unusually complex problem, so the firm set up a team of crack microchip designers, and they started putting their heads together.

About 45 minutes into their first working session, the marine biologist assigned to their team walked in with a bag of clams and set them on the table. Seeing the confused looks of the chip designers, he explained that clams can detect pollutants at just a few parts per million, and when that happens, they open their shells.

As it turned out, they didn’t really need a fancy chip to detect pollutants — just a simple one that could alert the system to clams opening their shells. “They saved $999,000 and ate the clams for dinner,” the executive told me.

That, in essence, is the value of <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2013/4-ways-open-innovation-can-drive-your-business-forward/">open innovation </a>. When you have a really tough problem, it often helps to expand skill domains beyond specialists in a single field. Many believe it is just these kinds of unlikely combinations that are key to coming up with breakthroughs. In fact, a <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/htm/papers/Science-2013-Uzzi-468-72.pdf">study analyzing 17.9 million scientific papers </a> found that the most highly cited work tended to be mostly rooted within a traditional field, with just a smidgen of insight taken from some unconventional place.

But what if the task had been simply to make a chip that was 30% more efficient? In that case, a marine biologist dropping clams on the table would have been nothing more than a distraction. Or, what if the company needed to identify a new business model? Or what if — as is the case today — <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2016/moores-law-will-soon-end-but-progress-doesnt-have-to/">current chip technology is nearing its theoretical limits </a>, and a completely new architecture needs to be dreamed up?

In researching my book, <a dir="ltr" href="http://amzn.to/2qAA3Jq">Mapping Innovation </a>, I found that every innovation strategy fails eventually, because innovation is, at its core, <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2017/dont-look-for-a-great-idea-look-for-a-good-problem/">about solving problems </a> — and there are as many ways to innovate as there are types of problems to solve. There is no <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2016/there-is-no-one-true-path-to-innovation/">one “true” path to innovation </a>.

Yet all too often, organizations act as if there is. They lock themselves into one type of strategy and say, “This is how we innovate.” It works for a while, but eventually it catches up with them. They find themselves locked into a set of solutions that don’t fit the problems they need to solve. Essentially, they become <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2017/this-is-how-your-business-will-be-disrupted/">square-peg companies in a round-hole world </a>and lose relevance.

We need to start treating innovation like other business disciplines — as a set of tools that are designed to accomplish specific objectives. Just as we wouldn’t rely on a single marketing tactic or a single source of financing for the entire life of an organization, we need to build up a portfolio of innovation strategies designed for specific tasks.

It was with this in mind that I created the Innovation Matrix to help leaders identify the right type of strategy to solve a problem, by asking two questions: How well can we define the problem? and How well can we define the skill domain(s) needed to solve it?

Sustaining innovation. Most innovation happens here, because most of the time we are seeking to get better at what we’re already doing. We want to improve existing capabilities in existing markets, and we have a pretty clear idea of what problems need to be solved and what skill domains are required to solve them.

For these types of problems, conventional strategies like strategic roadmapping, traditional R&amp;D labs, and using acquisitions to bring new resources and skill sets into the organization are usually effective. <a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking">Design thinking </a>methods, such as those championed by <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.ideo.com/people/david-kelley">David Kelley </a>, founder of the design firm <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.ideo.com/">IDEO </a>and <a dir="ltr" href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/">Stanford’s d.school </a>, can also be enormously helpful if both the problem and the skills needed to solve it are well understood.

Breakthrough innovation.  Sometimes, as was the case with the example of detecting pollutants underwater, we run into a well-defined problem that’s just devilishly hard to solve. In cases like these, we need to explore unconventional skill domains, such as adding a marine biologist to a team of chip designers. <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2013/4-ways-open-innovation-can-drive-your-business-forward/">Open innovation </a>strategies can be highly effective in this regard, because they help to expose the problem to diverse skill domains.

As <a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn">Thomas Kuhn </a>explained in the <a dir="ltr" href="http://amzn.to/2rUsZLz">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions </a>, we advance in specific fields by creating paradigms, which sometimes can make it very difficult to solve a problem within the domain in which it arose — but the problem may be resolved fairly easily within the paradigm of an adjacent domain.

The 4 Types of Innovation and the Problems They Solve

Big Innovations, Small Innovation, Shared Successes!

Novel Workings- Radical Results

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