Innovation Frameworks

Victor’s innovation strategy workflow applies proven business and innovation frameworks to identify disruption opportunities and design sustainable competitive advantage.

What Are Innovation Frameworks?

Innovation frameworks are structured approaches to finding and capturing new value. Unlike brainstorming (which generates ideas) or design thinking (which solves user problems), innovation frameworks focus on business model innovation and strategic positioning.

Framework	Primary Question
Jobs-to-be-Done	What are customers actually trying to accomplish?
Blue Ocean Strategy	Where is uncontested market space?
Disruptive Innovation	How can we attack from the edges?
Business Model Canvas	How do we create and capture value?

Jobs-to-be-Done

Core insight: Customers “hire” products to do a job. Understanding the job reveals innovation opportunities product features miss.

Traditional Thinking	Jobs-to-be-Done Thinking
”Millennials want healthy snacks"	"People need to feel productive between meals"
"Add more protein bars"	"Make it easy to get sustained energy”

The Framework

1. Identify the job — What is the customer trying to accomplish?
2. Understand context — When, where, and with what constraints?
3. Find struggles - Where does current solutions fail?
4. Innovate on the job — How can the job be done better?

Victor’s Approach

Victor relentlessly asks: “What job are they hiring this product to do?” The answer often reveals the real opportunity space.

Blue Ocean Strategy

Core insight: Don’t compete in crowded “red oceans”—create “blue oceans” of uncontested market space.

Red Ocean	Blue Ocean
Compete in existing market	Create new market
Beat the competition	Make competition irrelevant
Exploit existing demand	Create new demand
Align cost/value trade-off	Break the trade-off

The Framework

1. Eliminate — What factors should be removed?
2. Reduce — What should be reduced below industry standard?
3. Raise — What should be raised above industry standard?
4. Create — What should be created that never existed?

Example: Cirque du Soleil eliminated animals and star performers, reduced show variety, raised artistic and music quality, and created a new adult theatrical experience.

Disruptive Innovation

Core insight: Incumbents over-serve mainstream customers while overlooking segments. Disruptors enter ignored segments and improve.

Disruption Type	Pattern
Low-end	Serve customers incumbents ignore, improve upmarket
New-market	Serve non-consumers with simpler, more convenient solution

The Framework

1. Identify overserved customers — Who gets more than they need?
2. Find non-consumers — Who can’t use current solutions?
3. Simplify — What can be removed while still delivering value?
4. Improve rapidly — Move upmarket over time

Not All Innovation Is Disruption

True disruption follows specific patterns. Most “disruptive” claims are just incremental improvement. Victor distinguishes real from rhetoric.

Business Model Canvas

Core insight: How you create and deliver value matters as much as what you create. Business model innovation beats product innovation.

The Nine Building Blocks

Block	Question
Value Proposition	What value do we deliver?
Customer Segments	Who do we serve?
Channels	How do we reach them?
Customer Relationships	How do we interact?
Revenue Streams	How do we make money?
Key Resources	What assets do we need?
Key Activities	What must we do?
Key Partnerships	Who helps us?
Cost Structure	What does it cost?

Business Model Innovation Patterns

Pattern	Example
Freemium — Free basic, paid premium	Spotify, Dropbox
Subscription — Recurring revenue	Netflix, software as service
Marketplace — Connect buyers and sellers	Uber, Airbnb
Razor & Blades — Cheap hardware, expensive consumables	Printers, Keurig

When to Use Which Framework

Situation	Best Framework
Understanding customer motivation	Jobs-to-be-Done
Finding uncontested space	Blue Ocean Strategy
Analyzing competitive dynamics	Disruptive Innovation
Designing/reinventing business model	Business Model Canvas

Victor often combines frameworks. Jobs-to-be-Done reveals the opportunity; Blue Ocean positions it; Business Model Canvas monetizes it.

Innovation vs. Strategy

Innovation	Strategy
Creating new value	Capturing value created
What to do	How to win
Options and alternatives	Choices and commitments
Divergent thinking	Convergent choices

CIS innovation strategy workflows bridge both—generating options then making strategic choices.

Next Steps

• Develop an innovation strategy — Apply these frameworks with Victor
• Learn creative intelligence — Understand how innovation fits broader creative capability