- 8 min read

The Innovation Journal. The (Note)Book to Make-It-Happen

Innovation is one of the most profound concepts that has shaped the destiny of humanity. There are two main types of innovation; incremental and disruptive. Both of them are about taking systemic action and improving the product gradually with a human-centered approach. Just released a book as a guide and a journal for creating innovation.

The journal aims to provide guidance and most importantly, the means to take systemic action towards the user’s goal of prioritizing what really matters.

For this main objective, OKR is the top performance management framework, and the design thinking method may be the ultimate way to build creative solutions while staying disciplined, open-minded, and collaborative during the entire process.

OKR was first developed in Intel, and then Google adopted it in its early days as an inseparable part of its culture and the rest is history. OKR is now used by thousands of companies as well as startups, and individuals who want to reach their true potential.

This journal contains the OKR guidance as well as the daily OKR progress sheets for a period of one year so that users master the OKR lifestyle using it.

Design Thinking is also a great way to inspire building creative solutions through 6 steps, which are easy to follow when applied consistently. Design Thinking is best when used with a group of people focused on finding a solution. However, it may also be an important method to push the limits of the creative process when used as an individual.

Success is a game of iteration and consistency. By taking daily steps towards your main goals using this journal, you will surely push your limits and take closer steps to your own moonshot one day at a time.

You can read the sample and buy the book on Amazon here.

The 6 Key Habits of True Innovators Innovation is a deep topic, but as for any other topic, breaking it down into pieces and how it works, makes it easier to understand and apply the same process for any action-based creation of the new and useful. For us to innovate, we need to experience and feel the need for something and then, take systematic steps to realize it.

Let’s start with what innovation truly is. People are creative, thankfully, we have close proximity to bat genes, however, we have a dense brain that boosted our cognitive ability. Our innovation is incremental most of the time. It’s like driving a car and seeing the far reaches of the horizon as we make progress down the road. The best example to understand how incremental innovation works is cars. Each year cars are a little bit better in design, power, emissions, electronics, etc. And in a decade, the difference in every category is significant. As people, we want to move forward and invent new things. We have a tremendous ego, but we also compete and collaborate all at the same time.

Now that we have developed an approach to what innovation truly is, let’s dive into what the most important 8 elements of innovation are.

1. Define To understand and then develop something, there has to be a clear definition first. Because without a definition of the problem (or sometimes opportunity, we wouldn’t know what solution we are looking for. We need to make a concise and clear definition to start the innovation process.

For instance, Tesla’s case was nearly impossible. In the last 100 years, there was no automotive company that could become successful. However, the objective was clear from the beginning: building an affordable electric vehicle with a step-by-step process while improving the production and costs (battery especially) and helping humanity to reach a sustainable future. The laser focus of Tesla on its mission definition made today possible for the company to change the entire automotive landscape and more.

2. Constraints This may sound counterintuitive, however, you can’t just run a race without a track and a goal. Constraints help define the problem. A blank canvas limits creativity because there are infinite possibilities even if you are a master painter.

However, if you scratch a few lines on the canvas, you’d be able to start creating, which would help you create a beautiful artwork or any meaningful thing you are working on — that you didn’t know existed before.

It’s like writing a book. You can’t just start to write a book from the beginning to the end. Arguably the best method to write a story is to first create an outline of the topics and characters, line them up, and then enter content as if you are sculpting a statue.

3. Curiosity Leonardo da Vinci once said: “Curiosity is genius”, which means without tireless curiosity, mastery is not possible. It is not a coincidence that Da Vinci was one of the most curious and inventive people who ever lived. They say 10,000 hours are needed to master any field, however, a few hundred hours would be enough to develop an understanding since the learning curve gets slower as more time is spent on the field.

The education system all over the world kills our natural curiosity. We are born curious and we keep learning while not being afraid of making mistakes. Then, we are taught to pass tests and be successful at anything we do. This kills our curiosity and we start to become scared of failing. However, we all know that there is no success without failure.

Failure is the experience we need to succeed.

4. Passion Entrepreneurs are not only curious about a topic, they are obsessed with it. Most people have finite patience and credit for a subject. That’s why most people don’t become innovators.

On the other hand, is obsessed with a field is the way to know a topic truly. Elon Musk is the entrepreneurial inspiration of our generation. His story of how he became the man from taking shower in the YMCA to the person who changed how the automotive industry works created the story that millions look up to.

Elon Musk is known to ask his ex-wife if she ever thought about electric cars on their first date, is a clear indication of how obsessed he is. He didn’t work on it because he thought the business was going to make money, but rather he believed he would be able to change the automotive industry for a sustainable future.

He was also so passionate about rockets that he visited Russia 3 times to explore a way to buy a cold war ICBM — Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Since the Russian soldier made fun of him and even spat on him, he had to teach himself rocket science by reading all the books about the topic.

Thomas Edison is known to have 1,093 patents in his lifetime. This is about passion for invention and never giving up. He didn’t do it as a business. He did it because he wanted to add value. It was his lifestyle to invent.

Picasso used to be known to not get out of his studio for 3 days to finish his artwork. Einstein once said genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work. He also said that it was not that he was smarter than other people, but rather he was extremely focused.

5. Collaboration Innovation is also a process of collaboration. Any final product can be viewed as a completed building. You can be the greatest architect, however, without the engineers, construction workers, and heavy machinery, you cannot finish that building. Innovation is pretty much the same. You can possibly build a prototype or even a minimum viable product (MVP), but you need other people’s skillset, sources, and labor time to reach the first minimum lovable product (MLP) because we have only limited skill and time along with our sources.

6. Vision Lastly, and maybe most importantly, we need a constantly growing vision. Innovation is about the constant urge to move forward. Thomas Edison made over 1,000 attempts at inventing the lightbulb. He knew that he’d change the future of humankind when it works. In 1882, he made it happen.

In the same way, Nikola Tesla was a visionary. He was able to visualize the electric induction motor in his mind with great detail before even building it. He then worked with Thomas Edison on the electricity network. Edison believed in direct current and Tesla on the other hand believed in alternating current. That’s why their path together collapsed.

Then, Tesla had to work as a construction worker for years until George Westinghouse decided to invest in Tesla’s alternating current idea. Thanks to their collaboration, Tesla’s vision became a reality by generating alternating current using the first Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant, and then, he was able to present this success at World Fair in 1893 for everyone to enjoy the light show of the future.

Innovation is what made humans create the civilization

Thanks to the internet, we are more interconnected globally, which paves the way for innovation without boundaries with free information and collaboration globally.

Any new product or innovation can be conceived as a building. There are certain phases of building a structure and making it work brilliantly for the purpose. You need to plan, find the sources, bring together the materials, and collaborate with the people with the right skill set adding constraints such as architecture, construction, engineering, costs, and deadline. Innovation is an endless and fun game with a system.

When you realize every innovation is built by the same creative system and apply it with flexibility inside, you can then become a master innovator with “what’s next” in your mind.

Stretch Goals: The Key to Achieving Your Moonshots

Stretch Goals is Aiming for the Everest

Stretch goals may be what makes OKRs the top performance framework used by the most innovative companies in the world. Stretch goals are about pushing the limits of what’s possible.

It’s like aiming to run a marathon in under 2 hours or going to Mars with a manned mission in 2030. Even though stretch goals are mostly seen as impossible to reach, today’s impossible becomes tomorrow’s possible.

Stretch goals are long-term and they are inspiring rather than seen as impossible.

Elon Musk as the Champion of Stretch Goals

Elon Musk is unquestionably a great leader. He works endless hours tirelessly about what really matters and then, he is able to expect the same from his team. He sets seemingly impossible goals for production, auto-pilot, Mars, boring tunnels, Neural Link, and more. Basically, stretch goals are his lifestyle.

He projected half a million Teslas to be produced by 2016. Tesla fell short of it, but this culture of pushing forward with incredible momentum created the company that actually made it happen. In 2021, the company built about 950,000 Teslas and it is set to grow its production to 1.3 million cars in 2022. Tesla grows its production by 30% annually.

Tesla’s stretch goal of making a sustainable future through energy and automotive may have seemed impossible, however, now, all major automotive brands have already announced their plans to become 100% electric by 2030 thanks to the unstoppable progress Tesla has made within the last 10 years.

Sundar Pichai Stretch Goal for Google Chrome

Sundar Pichai had the stretch goal of reaching 100 million weekly users for the Google Chrome browser in 3 years. They set out to create the best browsing experience in 2006.

2008. The browser reached 10 million users when aiming for 20 million users weekly.
2009. 37 million weekly users instead of 50 million
2010. 111 million weekly users which surpassed the 100 million weekly user goal.

Now, Google Chrome is the dominating browser in the world thanks to the stretch goals realized in 2010. This success was reached using stretch goals and constantly improving the process using the feedback and taking lessons from previous actions. What You Can Achieve with the Innovation Journal

Learn and practice how OKR and design thinking work.
Gain the innovation culture for your company and individual lives through practicing it every day.
Use it as a source of inspiration and realization for your projects with stretch goals.

What You Can Achieve with the Innovation Journal

Learn and practice how OKR and design thinking work.
Gain the innovation culture for your company and individual lives through practicing it every day.
Use it as a source of inspiration and realization for your projects with stretch goals.